PANORA — It took all of 18 seconds for Panorama to score their first touchdown Friday. The Panthers would visit the end zone four more times before the final horn as a 35-7 win over NW Webster helped make for a happy Homecoming.
The Cougars (3-4, 2-3) ran an impressive total of 72 offensive plays, but even more impressive was a Panorama defense that held their guests to one score and proved stingy in allowing the visitors to succeed on only 3-of-15 third down plays and fail on all four of their attempts at converting on fourth down.
Panorama (6-1, 4-1) had four starters miss the game and one see only limited action, but overcame those obstacles with 239 rushing yards and another 158 through the air. The Panthers turned out to be their own worst enemy, losing four fumbles, including one on the 2-yard line and later on the 1-yard line, preventing at least a possible 14 points from appearing on the scoreboard.
Freshman quarterback Luke South was 8-of-16 for 158 yards through the air, including a 59-yard connection with Garrett Simmons on the first play of the game that moved the ball to the Cougar 8-yard line. Blaine Barber scored off right guard on the following snap, giving the Panthers a quick 7-0 lead on the first of Michael Allen’s five PAT kicks.
NW Webster answered with a two-yard TD plunge from Reid Steinberg that tied the game, but first of three Brody Rickheim touchdown runs followed, with his one-yard dive giving the hosts a 14-7 edge after one quarter of play.
Turnovers stopped the hosts for most of the second quarter. NW Webster mounted several drives, but were never able to convert those marches into points as the Panorama defense stiffened repeatedly when it mattered most.
Down tackle (and Homecoming King) Victor Barroso led the team with 12 tackles, with linebacker Rickheim adding 9.5 as the Panthers yielded very little yardage up the middle. Panorama had six tackles behind the line of scrimmage, with Daniel Jensen and Jeramy Randol each recording a sack. Allen and Simmons each had interceptions, with Koltin Sloss falling on a fumble to help keep the Cougars from threatening the outcome.
Rickheim finished with 122 yards on 14 carries, with a second one-yard power run off a Randol block moving the score to 21-7 at the half.
Neither team moved the scoreboard in the third quarter, but South squirted in from a yard away early in the fourth quarter to all but end the suspense as the hosts grabbed a 28-7 lead.
Rickheim ran hard throughout the game, but especially in the final frame, breaking numerous tackles for runs of 34 yards and of 18 yards before charging through the defense for a 23-yard TD that capped the scoring.
South ran for 98 yards on 15 carries, with Barber finishing with 23 yards on five rushes while Trey Cobb ran twice but lost four yards.
Simmons caught three passes for 124 yards and Cobb three for 24 yards, with Tanner Godfrey making a six-yard catch and Barber a grab for four yards.
Derek Girard was 6-20-1 for 86 yards for the Cougars, with Keaton Wood throwing a halfback pass that was picked off.
Keegan Pritchard came up with four receptions for 88 yards, with Wood catching one pass for no gain while Steinberg lost two yards on his lone catch.
Steinberg (18-67, 1 TD) and Mark Condon (8-52) led the Cougar ground game. Wood had 174 yards and two TDs on 16 carries when the teams met last year (a 42-22 Panorama win), but was stuffed for just 12 yards on 13 carries Friday while Girard lost eight yards on four carries.
Clay Freimuth had 8.5 tackles to pace the NW Webster defense, with Condon recovering two fumbles and making a sack.
The challenge for Panorama increases dramatically Friday when No. 5 Van Meter (7-0, 5-0) visits. The Bulldogs topped West Central Valley, 69-6, last week, the first points Van Meter has surrendered this year (the team has scored 352 points).
