PCHS Gridders Ready to Rebound

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Turnovers cost Pinckneyville a win on opening night last Friday at Red Bud, and now the Panthers are looking to rebound at home tonight as they face West Frankfort, a team they have been competitive with in the recent past, despite a lopsided loss last season.

Miscues on offense kept the Panthers from buildiing on a 10-7 lead last week, but the team defense did their job all night long, making only one early mistake in coverage before shutting down the Musketeers.

"That's where you have to start at, you're not going to get anywhere without a good defense," said Pinckneyville head coach Tod Rushing.

Red Bud's leading rusher, Matt Mehring, totalled only 40 yards on the ground.

While the defense more than held it's own, the offense struggled to find a second option behind quarterback Nathan Morton, who rushed for 147 yards on 28 carries in the game.

"Ben Harriss is probably our best back, but he had some back spasms last week and wasn't himself," said Rushing. "He's looked a lot better in practice this week, so we expect more out of our running game, it'll be more of a two-headed monster rather than just Morton."

Morton also had a 48-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Winter in the game, and Rushing sounded excited when discussing his players' ability in the passing/receiving game.

"(Bryant) Lively, D.J. (Keene), Dustin (Winter) and Derek (Kellerman) can all come in there and catch the football," said Rushing. "Nobody has blazing speed, but they can all do some things with the ball after the catch it."

The Panthers will may need all their weapons to fire, as they host a Redbirds team that torched them for 47 points and over 300 yards on the ground in last season's meeting.

Pinckneyille, too, had success on the ground in the game, going for 238 yards, so fans in attendance should be ready for a battle at the line of scrimmage.

"I really think their offense is built a lot like ours, based on the running game," said Rushing. "They may throw it a bit to keep us honest, but I look for them to come at us on the ground."

The Redbirds will be looking for their first victory as well after taking it on the chin against Anna-Jonesboro 41-0 in week one.

Kickoff at Quillman Field at PCHS is set for 7:00 p.m.