Dominant Second Half
Allows Parkway to Pull Away from Minster, 34-14
By
Bruce Monnin
ROCKFORD — The Parkway Panthers and Minster Wildcats
engaged in a back and forth first half battle Friday night. The difference in the game was a crucial
fourth down stop by the Panthers before half and a dominating performance after
the break as Parkway took one more step towards a playoff berth with a 34-14
victory.
Parkway looked as if they were going to have
their way all night on their first drive.
It took only seven plays and just over two minutes for the Panthers to
drive
Parkway stopped Minster on three plays and took
over possession on the Minster 46-yard line.
The Panthers, went for the quick strike, and committed their only
turnover on the night when Keith Nerderman
intercepted the pass on the Minster five-yard line.
The Wildcats responded with their most
impressive drive of the season, covering
After each team was stopped for a series, Josh
Fisher put Parkway in great field position with a 50-yard punt return. Seven plays later, Jensen Painter powered over
from one yard out and the Panthers regained a 14-7 lead. Once again, the Wildcats responded, this time
the major blow being Ty Whitford’s 52 touchdown run
to tie the game at 14-14.
Both teams appeared poised to score again
before half. It took only six plays for
Parkway to regain the lead on another Thompson seven-yard touchdown run. Minster looked to respond and immediately
drove to the Parkway six-yard line, but the Panther defense threw Minster for a
one-yard loss on a fourth-down play to carry a 21-14 lead into the locker room
at half.
A look at the halftime stats showed Minster
leading in total yards, 243-213, and also having one
less turnover and 38 fewer penalty yards.
But thanks to that crucial defensive stop, Parkway led in the only statistic
which matters, the score.
“They (Minster) did a good job in the first half, and exploited some things we were trying to do,” admitted Parkway coach Ed Kuhn. “We made some adjustments in the second half.” In the second half, the Panther defense held Minster to 37 total yards and no points. The offense rolled up 218 yards , though penalties kept Parkway from increasing their lead until the fourth quarter. “We had gobs of penalties,” added Kuhn, “and most of them were holding penalties. That’s hard to put drives together when you are starting 10 yards back.”
Parkway drove to midfield in their first possession after the break, and on their next possession advanced to the Minster 25-yard line before the Wildcat defense stiffened and sacked Parkway on a fourth-down play. As the fourth quarter began, the Panthers again drove to the Minster 12-yard line, and the Wildcat defense again held on a fourth-down play. The Minster offense again failed to move the ball and on the next Parkway possession their defense could hold no more. Thompson connected with Jeremy Heiser for a 35-yard touchdown pass and the Parkway faithful had a cushion at last. Thompson added another five-yard touchdown run late in the game and Parkway secured the 34-14 victory. Parkway moves closer to a playoff berth in
region 20 and is now 7-2. The Panthers
finish up by traveling to 2-7 Versailles next Friday. Minster, now 0-9, ends the season seeking to
gain their first win as they travel to play the 6-3 Anna Rockets.
SCORE BY QUARTERSParkway 7 14 0 13 — 34
Minster 7 7 0 0 — 14