Angry A-J Next Pinckneyville Challenge
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ After a week six win over Sparta, things were looking up for Pinckneyville varsity football. The Panthers had just put up 40 points on offense, and their defense, which put together an impressive run of games early in the season before slumping a bit, seemed to be back on track.
That was before this past Friday, when Chester came to town on homecoming night and blasted the Panthers 40-7, dropping Pinckneyville to 1-6 on the season, 1-3 in Southern Illinois River-to-River conference, Mississippi division play.
"We're not executing," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing. "We weren't even supposed to kick it to (Stephen Wallace), and we kicked it right to him."
Wallace would take the opening kickoff the distance, and would find the end zone later in the game on the ground.
The Panthers used three different quarterbacks in the game; the usual starter Nathan Morton (who had Pinckneyville's only touchdown pass on the night to Dustin Winter), Thomas McConnell (usually a linebacker and blocker, McConnell started in the win over Sparta) and Cody Smith, who saw limited action against Chester, and also earlier in the season when Morton was injured.
Morton had the most success throwing on Friday, but success on the whole for the offense was limited. The Panthers failed to achieve a first down until the middle of the second quarter, while their opponents, the Yellowjackets, racked up eight.
The breaking point came when a pair of penalty flags moved the Panthers from a would-be first and goal at the one all the way back to their own 32-yard line for a third-and-44.
"That holding call really did us in," Rushing agreed.
The Panthers travel to Anna this Friday seeking win number two, but will have their hands full with the A-J Wildcats, who are coming off their first regular season loss in three seasons. Anna-Jonesboro dropped a thriller to Du Quoin last week by the score of 26-13, falling to 6-1 in 2008, and handing the conference championship to the Indians.
"We can't get ourselves behind, and more than anything we've just got to come out ready to play," said Rushing.
"I thought we came ready to play the first couple games of the year, and then again at Sparta ... but other than that we've seemed like we've been a little shell-shocked out there."
After the game at Anna, the Panthers will close out their 2008 campaign at home against Breese Central.
"We told them 'don't be satisfied' (with just one win)," Rushing said. "We got the burden off of our backs and I think we relaxed a little bit too much."