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| Panthers dominate in sectional playoff |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by Gene Morris | |||
| Wednesday, 18 November 2009 09:00 | |||
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EUDORA — One play into its rematch against Eudora in the Class 4A sectional playoffs, the Paola High School football team delivered a message — not today. The Cardinals went with a little trickery on its first play from scrimmage, running a reverse to Brian Katzfey only to get tackled for a loss of eight yards by Panther senior lineman Luke Wilson. Eudora, smothered by the Paola defense, would have to punt on its first two possessions.  Paola followed the defensive jabs with two quick hits on offense, scoring the first two times it touched the football on its way to a 33-14 victory Friday. The Panthers (9-3) avenged a home to the Cardinals (9-3) in week four. Eudora made Paola pay for two kickoff returns, returning one for a touchdown and another 51 yards to set up another score in a 35-27 win at Panther Stadium. If the Cardinals were expecting to see the same Panther team this week, they were in for a rude awakening. Paola was out to return the favor. “We have been getting better,” Paola coach Michael Dumpert said. “It is our mantra — continue to get better each week. As long as our kids believe that, and are trying to get better every week, we have a really good chance of playing late into the year.” Special teams kickoff and punt coverages were stressed in practice since week four and Paola limited Eudora’s return game, giving the Cardinals a long field to work with most of the evening. “It became a point of emphasis then,” Dumpert said. “During this playoff run, we spent a lot of time on it in practice. Coach (David) Kane had the kids well prepared and they executed well.” Paola stuck with its bread and butter offensively, running the ball 48 times for 345 yards and nearly posting three 100-yard rushers. Junior running back Skylar Hawkins, who had 101 yards in the first half alone, ran the ball 23 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns. Tyler Henness, a sophomore running back, had 14 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns. “I think going in, we knew we could beat them, but to actually go out there and do it, instead of just talking about it, was amazing,” Henness said. Sophomore quarterback Seth Kern ran the football 11 times for 107 yards and one touchdown. Defensively, led by linemen Cale Karigan, Brandon Goodman and Jesse Smail, linebackers Daniel Mawby, Vincent Hermes and Henness and defensive backs Anthony West and Hawkins the Panthers kept Cardinal quarterback Evan Cleveland from being a factor and grounded the birds’ offense to a grand total of 139 yards. Eudora rushed for 76 yards and threw it for 63 yards. “We just kept Cleveland from getting outside on us,” Henness said. “That was the big difference from the first game. He got outside and hurt us in the first game.” West made some key pass deflections to keep Eudora from picking up some big plays in the passing game. “We just let our actions speak for themselves,” West said. “Defensively, when we play with a lot of emotion, we are pretty tough. The defense was fired up and we played together.” Leading 12-7 at the half, the Panthers delivered the knockout punch in the third quarter, taking advantage of a Cardinals’ fumble to put another touchdown on the scoreboard. Paola never looked back, extending its lead to 33-7 in the second half before a late score by Eudora made the final 33-14. Paola is back in action Friday night for a Class 4A substate playoff game at Panther Stadium against Bishop Miege, who advanced with a 35-7 victory at Louisburg in its sectional playoff. Defense dominated the game from the first snap. Wilson’s tackle for a loss of eight yards on the first offensive play of the game for Eudora gave the Cardinals a hole they could not dig out of. Eudora had to punt on fourth down and Paola got great field position as a result, starting at its own 48 yard line. Facing a fourth down with two feet to go, Henness plowed through the middle of the line for 3 yards to move the chains. Hawkins broke off a 7 yard run to pick up another first down. Kern capped off the drive with a 29-yard touchdown run. Paola’s kick was no good, making it 6-0 with 6:13 left in the first quarter. Eudora had a fourth down with 2 yards to go and were lined up to go for it, but a false start penalty backed the Cardinals up 5 yards and they punted it back to Paola. The Panthers answered with a 79-yard drive, making it a two-touchdown game in the first quarter. Hawkins moved the chains on a 6 yard run to convert on third down and gained another 6 yards on the next third down, taking the ball to the Paola 48 yard line. Hawkins darted through a hole in the line and took off on a 52-yard touchdown run, making it 12-0 with 34 seconds left in the opening quarter. The conversion pass attempt was no good. Eudora picked up its first, first down on an 11 yard run by Cleveland at the end of the first quarter, but the Cardinals had to punt the ball away. Paola let the punt bound and it rolled to the Panther 5 yard line. Eudora stopped Paola, forcing the Panthers to punt the ball out of its own end zone. After a 15-yard return, Eudora took over at the Paola 35-yard line. The Cardinals took advantage of the short field, scoring on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Cleveland to Christian Richardson, who ran past the Panther secondary down the middle. Eudora added the extra-point kick, narrowing the deficit to 12-7 with 5:15 left in the second quarter. Eudora got the ball back right before the half, but the drive stalled when Smail ran Cleveland out of the pocket and forced the Cardinal to throw the ball away. After stopping Paola on its first possession of the second half, Eudora fumbled the snap on its first play from scrimmage, giving Paola the ball at the Cardinals’ 24 yard line. Mawby recovered the fumbled snap for the Panthers. Henness punched the ball in from 3 yards out for the touchdown. Wilson’s kick made it 19-7 with 7:30 left in the third quarter. “When we came into this game believing turnovers were going to be the difference in the game,” Dumpert said. “While it didn’t turn out that way, at the time, that was a huge momentum swing. I was really proud of how our kids seized an opportunity and really took control of the game.” Paola’s defense continued to turn up the heat as Wilson brought Cleveland down to stuff Eudora on a fourth down and two, taking over on downs at the Cardinals 45 yard line. It did not take Paola long to turn the stop into points, scoring on a 45-yard touchdown run by Henness, increasing the Panther lead to 26-7. If there was a flicker of hope left for the Cardinals on the Eudora sidelines, Kern put extinguished it on a 59 yard run to take the ball to the 16 on the final play of the third quarter. Kern got around the end, hit the outside, sheded a Eudora defender and sprinted down the sideline. Hawkins ran the final 7 yards for the touchdown, making it 33-7 with 11:16 left in the fourth quarter. Eudora used a short field and a face mask penalty against Paola to set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Cleveland with 3:23 on the clock, making the final 33-14.
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