September 6, 2013 at 10:59 a.m.
Panthers win battle of hard hitters
Coach Gary Allen hopes the Panters picked up enough in the game to be ready to invade Darlington for a 3:30 game Friday.
"Darlington has an excellent team," Allen said. "We will need to play very well to beat them."
The Panthers learned they can come back and do it with some strength.
They trailed Palmyra-Eagle 12-7 at halftime after Adam Sallis scored on a two yard run in the first quarter and they tacked on a Mason Roscizewski to Mike Behr eight yard scoring pass in the second.
The Panthers had a short lead at the 8:07 mark of the second quarter when Isaac Anderson sent a pass to Trent Milliken that ended up as a 53 yard score. Mikkei Wind kicked the conversion for a 7-6 lead.
But, the P-E pass play changed that 13 seconds before the half.
Instead of giving the visitors momentum the late score game them a challenge, one they took advantage of with a touchdown in the third quarter and two in the fourth.
Cody Rider made it 15-12 single handedly when he scored on a seven yard run at the 8:06 mark and took in the two point conversion.
The Panthers scored again with 7:50 left in the game on a seven yard Anderson to Milliken pass then tacked on one more with 46 seconds left when Anderson hit Luke Nowak with a 39 yard strike. Wind kicked three conversions and Rider ran in the other one.
P-E's last gasp was a 65 yard run by Sallis at the 6:52 mark of the final frame.
Nowak had 117 yards on 18 carries and Rider 102 on 23 tries. The Panthers had 213 yards on the ground.
Anderson was six for 12 for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Milliken grabbed four of them for 120 yards.
Anderson, a sophomore, took over the quarterback job when his brother, TJ, had to take the year off. His play so far has impressed Allen.
"Isaac worked very hard over the off-season and has done a good job learning the offense," Allen said. "When given time he does well throwing the ball."
So far his main target has been Milliken.
"Trent has also worked very hard in the off-season," Allen commented. "He has a unique combination of size and speed. and has gotten better at getting open. He can be dangerous with the ball."
Allen also liked the combo of Nowak and Rider.
"Cody and Luke were also very committed in the off-season," said Allen. " Cody is a very physical runner and Luke can be pretty explosive. They can also do a nice job of blocking for each other."
"The O-line was not as consistent as we need them to be," Allen said about the blocking. "However, in the second half they got better and had a couple of nice drives."
About the defense Allen said:
"Palmyra-Eagle had some big, fast running backs. Our tackling wasn't as good as we need it to be. We also had some assignment breakdowns. It did get better in the second half though."
Allen did not feel there was a true turning point for the Panthers.
"I don't think there was a turning point other than the kids just bearing down and coming together as a team in the second half," he said. "We were pretty physical and I think that was probably the difference in the game."
"I think we learned that everyone has a job to do and that job needs to get done on each play," Allen said. "We also learned Palmyra-Eagle was a tough team and they played very hard."
