FOOTBALL: Pick-six propels Indians past Panthers

Pinckneyville jumped out to a big start in Friday's "Battle of the Beaucoup" at Du Quoin, but the Indians outscored the Panthers 34-7 over the final two and a half quarters to secure a win on homecoming night at Van Metre Field, 40-24. The results leaves both SIRR Mississippi Division teams at 3-2 overall with four games left to play.

The game's momentum belonged to the Indians just before halftime when Du Quoin's Cole Hopkins picked off a pass from PCHS quarterback Clayton Houghland and took it the distance for six points from 60 yards out with just 18.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

"I think that was huge for us," said DHS head coach A.J. Hill. "(Hopkins is) kind of a scrappy player. He's always around the ball and he made a big play for us, and we needed it. The first half didn't exactly go the way we wanted it to go right off the bat. We made some mistakes early. That was big for us to carry the momentum into halftime and giving our guys something to feed off of, and they did a good job of feeding off of it."

The Indians got on the board first with Zayne Fornear's 50-yard touchdown run midway through the opening period, but Pinckneyville would put up the next three scores, starting with Dylan Carns' 28-yard field goal with 1:47 to go in the first.

The Panthers picked up a Du Quoin fumble at the Indians' 21-yard line moments later, then Houghland connected on an 11-yard completion to Carns and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brian Kling, putting PCHS up 10-6 just before the quarter break.

Pinckneyville's defense continued to play well on the Indians' first drive of the second quarter, stopping them after DHS gained just 16 yards before punting. That gave the ball back to the Panthers, and running back Alex Howard took a handoff 50 yards for a score on the third play from scrimmage. Carns' extra point made it 17-6 with 9:12 left in the half.

But from that point on, Du Quoin's offensive line started to have their way with the Panthers. On the ensuing drive, Fornear had runs of 17 and 10 yards, Caleb Vogel completed a 9-yard pass to Braden Tuthill, and then Vogel ran it in from 29 yards away with 6:32 on the clock. The two-point try failed, leaving the Indians down 17-12.

Pinckneyville picked up one first down on their next drive before punting it back to DHS, and the Indians went right back to work. Two passes from Vogel to Brock Bullar totaling 30 yards set up a 20-yard touchdown pass from Vogel to tight end Devin Jones, who made a leaping grab between defenders before bulldozing his way into the end zone with 1:04 remaining till the break.

Trailing 18-17, the Panthers got a good return on the kickoff by Caulden Lazenby and started at Du Quoin's 49-yard line, which made the decision to try to score rather than down out the clock too tempting for PCHS. Hopkins' pick-six sent Du Quoin's fans and sideline into an uproar, and Fornear added the two-point conversion on a run to give the Indians' a 26-17 lead at halftime.

Another good return by Lazenby started the second half and set the table for a 6-play, 48-yard scoring drive to keep the Panthers in the game. Howard ran it in from 4 yards out for his second TD and Carns added to kick to make it a 2-point game.

"I thought our offense played pretty well in the first half," PCHS head coach Todd Thomas said, "and I don't think our kids quit. It would have been easy to roll over because we were getting physically beat up a little bit, and they didn't, so that's always positive."

"We did some things I thought might give them problems, but it wasn't enough. We're not good enough to where we can make a mistake and not run the right play. It seems like there's one guy that we're having a breakdown with and that's just a lack of discipline. We've got to mature in that. We're young, and that will come."

That was it for the Panthers' offense, though. Du Quoin ate up the next 5-plus minutes of game clock before Bryce Clarry put it in the end zone on a 20-yard run. A quick three-and-out for PCHS was followed by a 9-play, 45-yard touchdown drive by the Indians that included a fourth down conversion, a 24-yard completion to Jones, and a 6-yard score by Fornear.

"We didn't have much chance to score in the second half," said Thomas. "They had the ball most of the second half, and with their big line, I knew we would struggle if they got in the (I-formation) and really pounded it because we had their Herrin film, and they kind of took it to Herrin. When you can do that, you're pretty good up front, and that's what they did. Fornear is a very good running back, and (Clarry) is a heck of a lead blocker. We did the best we could. I'm not disappointed in our kids' effort."

In total, Du Quoin out-gained Pinckneyville 446-to-234 in total yards from scrimmage and 331-to-98 on the ground. Although Fornear's numbers again jumped out - the team's leading rusher in every game thus far had 30 carries for 214 yards - Vogel (6 attempts, 47 yards), Clarry (9-42), Dylan Ford (3-20) and Anthony Spiller (2-8) also did their share of damage. Jones also had a big game as a receiver, hauling in 4 balls for 71 yards.

"We knew we couldn't keep giving Zayne all the carries," said Hill. "We needed to spread it around a little bit so defenses couldn't just key on where he's at. Devin (Jones) made some huge plays, that's what we've been expecting out of Devin all year. Vogel trusts him, he's kind of like a safety blanket. He looks for him a lot. He threw one up and Jones came out of nowhere to make a big play. Those are things we hadn't had go well for us this year that happened tonight. I thought our kids did a good job. The effort was there, and that's the thing I'm most proud of."

Hill also said it was probably the best game for his quarterback, Vogel, who completed 8-of-10 passes for 115 yards in addition to his rushing totals, also completing throws to Bullar (2-30), Tuthill (1-9) and Hopkins (1-5).

"We knew with Vogel being a first-year starter he was going to have some a learning curve. We knew we were going to take some lumps with him early. He made some mistakes, but we just stayed with him and stayed positive. I think that's the biggest thing for him. He's finally starting to get a little comfortable. He's making some plays with his feet, he's trusting this throws a little more. He's a special athlete and once he starts to get more comfortable he can be a big weapon for us."

Howard led Pinckneyville with 72 yards on 11 rushes. Lazenby (4-12), Houghland (9-6), Kling (1-3) and Dalton Perradotto (2-5) also ran the ball for the Panthers. Houghland was 10-for-15 passing for 136 yards, connecting with Carns (5 catches, 74 yards), Kling (3-38) and Lazenby (2-19).

The Du Quoin-Elverado co-op Indians (3-2, 2-0) head to Sparta (4-1, 1-1) in week six this Friday. The Panthers (3-2, 0-2) host Anna-Jonesboro (2-3, 0-2) for their homecoming game the same night.