Lewis County 24 McKenzie 7

[donhaney]

Lewis County broke the jinx of the past two years tonight with a 24-7 victory over the Rebels of McKenzie.... A few thoughts about the game:

 

1: Drew Hayes of McKenzie threw 47 times, completing 25 for 200+ yards but was picked off three times. The Panthers played a three man front for a whole lot of the game tonight and dropped eight men into pass coverage. I thought the scheme hatched by the Panther coaching staff was excellent. The great majority of Hayes' completions were underneath for short yardage and they were content to use a "bend but don't break" approach.

 

2: The Panthers ran far less veer and returned to the standard wing-t tonight and it worked well as they had over 200 yards rushing and got much more play from the wingbacks.

 

3: I would be interested in hearing from the Rebel fans on their thoughts about McKenzie going for a first down at their own 32 yard line early in the third quarter with them trailing only 13-7. Fourth and a foot from their on 32 and the back gets stood up in the backfield for a yard loss. Lewis County qb David Sharo scores on a 31 yard run on the very next play and the Panthers go up 21-7. I thought it was the turning point of the game?

 

4: I really thought that Lewis County tackled better than I have seen them do all year! It is a given that tackling is important but they were gang tackling and really hitting the receivers coming underneath tonight. Both recovered fumbles were the result of hard hits, gang tackling and stripping the football.

 

5: I was also surprised that McKenzie didn't run the football anymore than they did. Cook was very productive early but they seemed to forget about him as the game progressed.

 

6: Lewis County's kicking game was a big factor again. Sharp punted very well expecially on two kicks deep inside the twenty while the Rebels didn't get great results from the kicking game. Sharp kicked off deep and Carlos Juvara added another field goal. Only dark spot was the Panthers getting an extra point blocked.

 

7: No one could have convinced me that McKenzie would have only scored seven points and that coming on a Hail Mary pass in the end zone.

 

8: No one could have likewise told me that we could have controlled the game by throwing only 3 passes all night. I spoke with Coach Sharo earlier this week, trying to squeeze the information about whether or not we would open it up and he was convinced that we could move the ball on the ground.... As usual, he was right and I am better suited as a sports reporter than trying to be a football coach.

[RebelBaseball12]

Great Post! ... Well, what can I say ... It was a great season! We'll get em next time!

[hardhead]

I thought LC was the better team. McKenzie fans may use the excuse "we just had a bad night" but LC was the cause of their bad night. The McKenzie receivers took a lot of hard licks and were dropping balls in the 4th quarter.

 

The McKenzie coach will probably admit they made a mistake on the 4th down play. It was too early. It was a turning point.

 

McKenzie's lack of speed hurt them all night.

 

Didn't the Ref really look bad on that 2 flag penalty against McKenzie? They were totally lost. Even the McKenzie fans knew it should be 1st and 30, not 1st and 10.

 

Don, please tell the LC band director not to play when the opposing team is on offense. It happened all night.

[hico125]

hardhead, I concur on the band. However, I don't feel it factored into the outcome. The 4th down call was one of those where you are either a hero or a zero. You can always question him since we did not make it. I think maybe the fake punt would have been the better call. I felt LC did a great job tackling, however I still feel alot of the gang tackling was due to the incompetance of the officials since they wouldnot blow the paly dead after forward progress was stopped.

[hardhead]

Yeah, the band wasn't loud enough to bother anybody.

 

What hurt the Rebel's chances on the 4th down play was not getting the players on the field in time. They had to hurry to avoid a delay of game penalty.

 

Either way, I don't think LC or McKenzie would have a chance against Huntingdon.

 

What's the outlook for McKenzie next year?

[hico125]

We will lose two lineman and most of our skilled players will be back (Hayes, Cook, Lacey). We will lose two good LBs in Campbell and Howell. We should be in good shape. We might be a little smaller.

[ddaddy]

The 4th down call really hurt Mckenzie. It was too early in the game to give LC that kind of field position. I think probably a fake punt might have worked better. Mckenzie has some very good assistant coaches in Duncan, Thomas, Chappel, but they probably didn't make that call.

[DanPatrick]

What an impressive win! The 1st quarter looked like a true David v. Goliath (rebs) matchup.

Lewis Co had every opportunity to choke away a victory - and they didnt do it. Their backs were against the wall after the 3rd Down Hail Mary completion for a TD. They stepped it up a notch and started strokin the rebs the rest of the night. I believed I counted 3 broken helmets - THATS GREAT! Stay calm during adversity and break 4 helmets this week and it should be a great game!

[goldenboy]

I never thought I would do this but I'd like to congatulate McKenzie on a good year and the Panthers on a great game. Our defense looked great, I can only describe it as "Swarming" we had at least 6 or 7 guys in on every tackle. The DB's played great, I thought we had more than 3 int's but I guess I was wrong. Until Friday night I'd never been jealous of a player in my life but I wish I could of been as good as Daniel "Butt" Hull. He is being a huge butt hole to opposing QB's. Just hearing his name would scare me if I was them. How many sacks does he have now Don? I'll have to admit when that extra point got blocked I got scared, I had all of these horrible memories of last year pop back in my head. When I went into the locker room at halftime and saw that everybody still had the fire in their eyes that was in them before them game I knew it was ours. I hope the fire is gonna be there this Friday also. It was nice meeting you Mr. wannab.

[wannab]

Yes, GB, same here. I thought I saw the flames when walking throught the gate for the first time but did not have time to give a shout till after the game.

[TheExpert]

GB:

 

Hull has set the season record for QB sacks and he either has 13 or 14.. I don't have the book in front of me. It is in the den and I am too lazy to go look it up for sure but I can attest that he broke Tommy Stagg's single season record for sacks which had held since 1981. Tommy "Tinker" Staggs was Miles Staggs father.

 

Also, David Sharp passed Benji Rainey this week for total yardage leader for a career. He has somewhere around 5,800 yards for his career.

 

Carlos Juvara is on pace to break the single season percentage record for a kicker. He is 31-33 and 4-4 in field goals.