Published: September 07, 2008 02:07 pm            

Miscues cost Panthers in season opener

It was billed as one of the top games in Class 3A and it turned out like it was billed. The only disappointment in the battle of top 20 teams, Pauls Valley and Newcastle, was the outcome for the Pauls Valley side of the field. Missed opportunities and mistakes cost the Pauls Valley Panthers as they dropped a 16-10 contest to the Newcastle Racers.

“I think we made too many mistakes,” Pauls Valley head coach Kevin Foster said. “We had some first game jitters. This was the first varsity experience for several of our starters. But a majority of the mistakes we made tonight can be corrected.”

Newcastle had shown at their scrimmage that they were going to spread the field and pass the ball. Just like the Panther coaches thought and practiced for all week, the Racers came out in the eye and handed the ball to workhorse Riley Gibson. Gibson had 32 carries on the night and finished with 184 yards.

Despite Gibson's numbers, the Panthers played extremely well on defense. They gave up a couple of plays but for the most part played well including stopping the Racers inside the Red Zone three times in the game two of those times Newcastle was inside the 10.

“Our defense kept us in the game,” Foster said. “We still allowed them to get a couple of big plays but for the most part we played really well.”

Newcastle got the ball to start the game and took advantage of their first possession. They drove 63 yards in nine plays behind Gibson's eight carries. Gibson had all but two yards in the drive including an 18-yard run for the touchdown.

The Panther offense sputtered out of the gate. In their first five possessions they had three first downs and two interceptions.

Near the end of the first half, the Panthers got their offense rolling with back-to-back big gainers to Adrain Morales and Ethan Gilbert that went for 20 and 26 yards respectively. The moved the ball across the mid field stripe and after a pass interference call against Newcastle the Panthers had the ball inside the 20-yard-line. With time running out the Panthers had to work quickly. A second down run kept the ball inbounds and the clock running. With no timeouts, PV had to get back to the line and spike the ball for the second quarter clock ran out. Livingston just did beat the clock as he got the ball snapped and spiked with less than three seconds remaining. That was enough time for Edgar Colmenares to come in and nail a 31-yard field goal that put the Panthers on the board.

PV's offense greeted the second half with a three-and-out. Livingston's 40-yard punt pushed Newcastle back to their own 31. Newcastle's offense took advantage of their first drive on the second half.

The Racers had a seven-play drive that was aided by three PV penalties to move down the field. Gibson capped off the drive with a five-yard blast into the end zone giving Newcastle a 16-3 lead.

The best drive of the game ensued for Pauls Valley, but the drive failed to produce any points. A 10-play drive moved the ball from the PV 34 all the way down inside the Newcastle 20. Livingston had a couple of big runs in the drive and also a 16-yard completion to Morales. The Panthers had a first-and-10 at the 20 and a third-down run by Livingston almost gave them a first down. Facing a fourth-and-one at the 11, PV went for the first down and came up just short on a left foot, right foot spot by the side judges.

Newcastle gained possession but couldn't do anything with the football as PV forced them to punt. A 19-yard punt gave the Panthers excellent filed possession at the 29.

Livingston dropped back to pass on first down but didn't have an open receiver and tucked the ball and ran. After an eight-yard gain, the ball was jarred loose. Three Newcastle players had the ball surrounded but PV's Edgar Colmenares dove into the pile and wrestled the ball away from the Newcastle playersas PV kept possession.

Morales had a 13-yard run at the start of the fourth quarter that kept the drive alive and pushed the Panthers inside the 15-yard-line. Livingston carried the ball down to the two on a first down run and powered his way in from two yards out for the touchdown cutting the lead to 16-10.

Newcastle chewed up a lot of time on the fourth quarter clock with a 10-play drive but the Panther defense finally got the drive stopped and forced a punt. The Panthers gave the ball right back to the Racers as Ryan Corbin picked off a pass inside Panther territory.

Newcastle moved the ball down to the Panther 10-yard-line but the PV defense dug in and forced a turnover on downs with 2 minutes remaining.

PV picked up a quick first down but that would be all they would get in the drive as they came up four yards short on a fourth-down play giving the ball back to Newcastle with just over a minute to go.

Newcastle ran out the clock and picked up a good non-district win over the Panthers.

“Newcastle's a good football team,” Foster said. “I thought our kids fought hard to the end.”

Pauls Valley will open the home portion of the schedule the Friday as they host the Sulphur Bulldogs.

        

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