Panthers use defense to bite and claw past Wayne County

PETAL — If Petal wanted to be tested, they got that test and then some.

The Panthers were far from crisp offensively, gave up some plays on defense, and had to play without quarterback Anthony Alford for the final, critical part of the game, but the defense came through when it needed to, intercepting two passes for huge turnovers and forcing four punts in the second half to keep Wayne County off the scoreboard after the break and on the wrong side of a 21-14 final.

Petal's Anthony Alford fights through Wayne County tacklers during a 21-14 season-opening win on Saturday. Alford finished with 180 yards on the ground. (Photo by Chuck Lick/click-images)

Petal (1-0) got picks from Jesse Jackson and Jared Smith, who returned his grab 24 yards to set up an Alford touchdown late in the first half. The score took Petal into the break tied at 14 with the 5A powerhouse War Eagles (0-1).

Alford finished with 21 carries for 180 yards and two TDs, including a 55-yard scoring scamper on the first play of the second quarter, but left the game for the final portion after suffering leg cramps.

Jaleel Lacy controlled things for Wayne County, as the QB ran for over 100 yards and passed for over 200, causing fits for the Panther defense all night. He hit Jarvis Chambers and Braden Nicholson for scoring tosses of 21 and 19 yards, respectively.

“Wayne County is tough,” Petal senior linebacker Jared Smith said. “I mean, they’re tough. It was a good game.

“They’re fast … but we worked through it and adjusted to it.”

Smith’s interception return was one of the biggest plays of the game, taking the ball down to the Wayne County 1-yard line to set up the tying touchdown.

Petal linebacker Jared Smith takes down Wayne County quarterback Jaleel Lacey. Lacey had a big game, but Smith came up with a big interception and the Panthers came up with the necessary stops. (Photo by Chuck Lick/click-images)

“Huge, huge,” Petal head coach Steve Buckley said of the forced turnovers. “Our defense, it is what it is. But we’re going to take some chances on defense and when we took those chances, we were in a position to make plays. It hurt us early —it’s kind of give and take — but I thought the two turnovers defensively were huge.”

Petal’s stoppers did a lot of bending in the second half, but never broke, stopping Wayne County on downs at the 5-yard line less than three minutes into the fourth, and then surviving a harried drive by the War Eagles with time winding down in the game.

Lacey ran down to the Petal 29 for a first down with less than a minute to go, but did not get out of bounds as the clock continued to tick. Inevitably he overthrew Lockhart deep in the end zone as the clock ticked to zeroes.

Alford was on the sideline at that point, but he also came out of the game late in the third quarter, after a brilliant 27-yard run took the Panthers down to the 2-yard line. But Larson Barkurn stepped into the shotgun after that, curling around the left side of the line for the go-ahead score with 3:19 to go in the third.

“It’s a huge win for our football program against a well-coach, really good football team,” Buckley said. I didn’t think either team played particularly well; there were a lot of errors, maybe because of the crowd of first-game jitters. That goes back to me.

“We’ve got to do a better job of executing. We had poor communication in certain areas. A lot of things you expect in a first game but it’s surprising that it happened to us tonight.”

Those mistakes often came in the form of dropped passes, of which Alford was a victim four or five times. There was also a muffed punt in the first quarter that set up Wayne County’s first touchdown, the 12-yard strike to Chambers.

“We left a lot of plays, offensively, on the field,” Buckley said. “We couldn’t catch the ball at times, we dropped two straight screens, we dropped a crossing route for a first down. We had the muffed punt that hit one of our kids. But we’re going to take it as a positive and learn from that.”

Petal head coach Steve Buckley looks on as his Panthers play Wayne County in Saturday night's season opener at Panther Stadium. Petal won 21-14. (Photo by Chuck Lick/click-images)

But Alford set the tone for the rest of the game, striking back by leading a six-play drive that he capped by knifing straight through the defense and heading off to the races for a 55-yard score.

On the first play of the War Eagles’ ensuing drive Lacey found Nevan Lockhart — who led his side with six catches for 136 yards — on a short pass that the wideout turned into a 62-yard reception. Three plays later Lacey found Nicholson for a 14-7 advantage with 10:56 to go in the first half.

Then the momentum swings came. Petal went four-and-out after gambling on fourth-and-1 from its own 29 and coming up short. Wayne County took advantage of the strong field position to push into the red zone, but when Lacey went looking to throw it to the goal line, Jackson (three catches, 26 yards on offense) stepped in front and stole away a TD.

The War Eagles got the ball back deep in their own territory, where Lacey was victimized yet again, this time by Smith.

The teams traded punts on the first three possessions of the third quarter, but a nine-play drive gave the home side the lead for good.

The gauntlet continues for the Panthers, who host Picayune on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The Maroon Tide (1-0) were 17-14 winners over Gulfport in Week 1.

“I like the schedule,” Smith said. “The first four games are tough, but I like it. We came out here and we showed up.”

Now they’ll have to do it again.

NOTES: Wayne County kicker Tyler Franklin missed a 34-yard field goal as time expired in the first half. It would have given his side a halftime lead. … Austin Franklin had a strong game punting for the Panthers, averaging 41.8 yards per kick and downing a punt at the 2-yard line. … Barkurn, who filled in admirably for Alford, was 2-of-2 through the air for 22 yards.

*Wayne County team and individual statistics incomplete

PETAL 21
WAYNE COUNTY 14

Score by Quarter
Wayne County             7     7   0   0—14
Petal                              0   14   7   0—21

First Quarter
WC—Chambers 21 pass from Lacey, (T. Franklin kick), 2:37.
Second Quarter
P—Alford 55 run, (A. Franklin kick), 11:52.
WC—Nicholson 19 pass from Lacey, (T. Franklin kick), 10:56.
P—Alford 1 run, (Reynolds kick), 2:23.
Third Quarter
P—Barkurn 1 run, (A. Franklin kick), 3:19.

TEAM STATISTICS
WC   P
First Downs                18                     14
Rushes-Yards               39-144               44-234
Comp-Att-Int               11-26-2              5-13-1
Passing Yards              201                   54
Total Plays-Yards         65-345               57-288
Fumbles-Lost              2-0                    1-1
Punts-Avg.                  6-30.8               6-41.8
Penalties-Yards            7-65                  5-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Wayne County—Lacey 19-100, Jones 19-39, Walker 1-5.
Petal—Alford 21-180, Payne 18-47, Barkurn 4-7, Revies 1-0.
Passing
Wayne County—Lacey 11-of-26, 201 yds., 2 TDs, 2 Int.
Petal—Alford 3-of-11, 32 yds., Int.;Barkurn 2-of-2, 22 yds.
Receiving
Wayne County—Lockhart 6-136, Nicholson 2-33, Chambers 1-21, Hodge 1-6, Pettus 1-6.
Petal—Jackson 3-26, Pollard 1-19, Pellegrin 1-9.