Gallery by Greg Barnett
Gardner – Combining old-school execution with new-school philosophies and decision making, PikeView found its way to the win column.
The Panthers crowded the box on both sides of the ball all evening, rushing 42 times for 200 yards and yielding under 90 yards of offense en route to a 14-0 victory over Liberty Friday in Gardner.
The contest signaled a change for the Panthers who had thrown the ball 51 times for over 300 yards in their first two games and yielded 49 and 45 points respectively in each contest, both losses.
“We have had the Power-I in since we went through it in the summer,” PikeView coach Jason Spears said. “That’s the one thing I want to preach. Our (offensive coordinator), he has so many formations we can go to and if we watch film and think something’s going to work, we’re going to stick with that. Next week it might be something different but the offense did great, the line played awesome and the defense played a heckuva game. That’s one thing about it – we can open up to a lot of things and that’s what we try to do because you never know what you need and what to expect or who’s watching you.”
The Panthers dominance on the defensive side of the ball was evident by Liberty’s drive charts. Of the Raiders’ 10 drives, only two of them reached their game-high of six plays. Miscues didn’t help the run-heavy Raiders as penalties and bad snaps derailed their momentum, regularly setting an offense that needed to stay on schedule behind the sticks.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself because we can’t have negative plays,” Liberty interim head coach Mark Montgomery said. “We need three or four yards a play and a bad snap over the head – this is the first year the kid’s played center. We have no skill people back from last year and we knew what it was going to take. We’re going to take our lumps but you better get us now.”
Where Liberty couldn’t find success PikeView did, drawing first blood on it’s first drive when Logan Cook housed a 24-yard run to cap a four-play, 37-yard scoring drive.
The score held through the half as PikeView fumbled and threw an interception while Liberty also fumbled – all in the second quarter – killing the flow of both offenses.
When the Panthers needed a big play to sustain a drive and extend their lead, they found one with Cook answering the call. Facing fourth-and-4 on their own 45, Spears decided to roll the dice and go for it. Cook made his coach look like a genius with a 25-yard rumble and six plays later Austin Shrewsbury capped the drive with a 13-yard scamper.
Q3 PikeView 14, Liberty 0
After a 25-yard run from Logan Cook on 4th and 4, Austin Shrewsbury caps a 10-play, 61-yard drive with a 13-yard run for the Panthers #wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/uXoc8UqJQX— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 10, 2022
The fourth down call was consistent with Spears’ decision making throughout the evening as the Panthers finished 3-of-5 on fourth down conversion attempts, executing a fake punt as well.
“I had a lot of confidence in our running back group,” Spears said. “That’s one thing about it. I call them the four horsemen of the running back because they – you’ve got to have a lot of confidence knowing they’ll get that first down and they’ll drive their feet to the point where they get that first down. I put a lot of faith in them and the o-line. They had a job to do and they did it.”
Liberty found some success on its final drive, picking up 21 yards on its second longest play from scrimmage on a Dalton Williams run but the game was already in hand.
The defensive effort was a continuation from the Panthers’ previous game against Van where they found success in the second half.
“We started to click in the second half last week against Van, letting them score once,” Spears said. “They realized that if you pursue and tackle and be aggressive good things will happen. That’s one thing we preached all week. They really wanted to focus on defense and make a statement on that side of the ball and they did. They did a great job with (Brian) Huggins and Anderson and (Austin) Shrewsbury and Logan Cook. They did a good job a that linebacker core and they just fly to the ball and make smart decisions.”
Liberty drops to 0-2, still scoreless on the season, and will travel to Sherman next Friday in search of its first win. PikeView improves to 1-2 and will travel to Westside next week.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
L: 0 0 0 0 – 0
PV: 7 0 7 0 – 14
Scoring
Q1
PV: Cook 24 rush (Kiser PAT)
Q3
PV: Shrewsbury 13 rush (Kiser PAT)
Individual Statistics
