Week 5 football: Not pretty, as Indians roll over Panthers

Pinckneyville took the opening kickoff and drove 54 yards, but the drive ended with an interception at the goal line. The Du Quoin defense held the Panthers to just 51 yards the rest of the game and shut out their cross-county rivals 55-0, at Van Meter Field on Friday night.

"The win was a confidence booster," said Du Quoin coach Derek Beard. "We talked all week about playing hard and respecting your opponent and not taking things for granted. We've seen how fast things can be taken away from you this year."

Du Quoin (3-2, 1-1 SIRR Mississippi) hits the road Friday for a nonconference game against Breese Mater Dei (5-0). Pinckneyville fell to 0-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference and will host Anna-Jonesboro Friday at 7 p.m.

"Normally we would be playing Sparta this week, but with them leaving the conference we had to find another game," Beard said. "We've had some good playoff games between us in the past, so we think of this as a playoff type game. Breese is pretty similar to us. Two good football teams going at it are the games that make you better."

The Indians offense rolled up 532 total yards with 427 yards rushing led by Nick Brown's 143 on nine carries and 105 yards passing with no turnovers.

"Coming in we talked about not making mistakes and not having negative plays and we were able to do that," Beard said. "We got a very good performance from our offensive line. Almost every time we ran the ball it was at least a five-yard gain if not more."

The Indian defense held the Panthers to 49 yards passing and 56 yards rushing for 105 total yards, while forcing four turnovers. Those included a 54-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown and two interceptions by defensive back Hunter Douglas.

The Panthers started their opening drive at their own 31, and ate up most of the first quarter on a 17-play drive to the 15. Indians linebacker Kameron Hugya picked off Trey Moll at the goal line, after Moll completed his first three passes for seven, 12, and 21 yards.

"They had the ball most of the first quarter, but after the interception we scored pretty quick," Beard said. "It was important for us to get that stop. Once we got a couple things corrected - our defensive line was penetrating a little too deep and getting up the field - we were able to shut them down."

When the Indians got their offense on the field Brown went to work ripping off runs of 14 and 12 yards before scoring a 25-yard touchdown run to open the second quarter. When the Indians got the ball back Brown started with an eight-yard run and finished with a 36-yard touchdown run to give the Indians a 13-0 lead.

"Nick is a dependable kid who plays hard all the time," Beard said. "He actually only played in the second quarter and the first drive of the third quarter and then we took him out. It was a very good performance by him."

Kicker Tilden Henderson made his varsity debut. After missing his first extra point try the freshman made his next six.

"Tilden did a great job," Beard said. "He's been consistent in practice this week. We just moved him up because we wanted him to get a lot of game experience Friday night and he executed well."

A one-yard touchdown run by Brady Knapp and a 16-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Hamilton gave the Indians a 27-0 lead just before the half. The half ended with Lee connecting with Jaden Smith on a 50-yard pass, but he was tackled short of the end zone at the buzzer.

Du Quoin upped its lead to 34-0 in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Elijah Jones. The Indians finished strong with 21 points in the fourth quarter on an 11-yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Camden Waller, Seth Howerton's 54-yard fumble recovery and a one-yard touchdown run by Korbin Cranford.

Scoring stats

Pinckneyville 0 0 0 0 - 0

Du Quoin 0 27 7 21 - 55

First downs: PV, 6; DQ, 24.

Penalties/yards: PV, 1/5; DQ: 5/43.

Fumbles lost: PV, 1; DQ, 0.

PV RUSHING: Gabe Paredes 14-30; Jase Lee 4-16; Hayden Alvis 4-12; Trey Moll 2-1; Joey Ioccino 4-(-3).

DQ RUSHING: Nick Brown 9-143-2TD; Jonathan Savage 6-72; Nishan Woody 2-65; Jonathan Hamilton 5-45-1TD; Brady Knapp 6-28-1TD; David Lee 2-26; Gabe Adams 3-22; Jacob Eaton 2-13; Camden Waller 2-7-1TD; Elijah Jones 3-4-1TD; Korbin Cranford 2-2-1TD.

PV PASSING: Trey Moll 4-13-3int-49-0TD.

DQ PASSING: David Lee, 5-9-0int-95-0TD; Camden Waller 1-2-0int-10-0TD.

PV RECEIVING: Duke Riggins 2-33; Kellen Scott 1-9; Joey Ioccino 1-7.

DQ RECEIVING: Jaden Smith 3-70; Nick Brown 2-22; Caden Hutchins 1-13.