Panthers shocked in 17-0 loss
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Georgiana fell to 2-3 on the season as the A.L Johnson Eagles shocked the Panthers by the score of 17-0 before the homecoming crowd at Harmon Field.
The Eagles held the Panthers to 65 total yards on the night while their offense racked up 265 yards on the ground.
The Eagles controlled the tempo of the ballgame as the time of possession was clearly on their favor.
Georgiana first year head coach Donald Ray Mixon, Jr. commented on the game.
“A.L. Johnson played extremely well tonight,” Mixon said.
“They are a good football team and they surprised us all with their effort and execution.”
Mixon also discussed the problems that Georgiana had in the loss.
“We made too many mistakes tonight.
They jumped on us early and took advantage of our mistakes,” Mixon said.
“The kind of mistakes that we made tonight can be corrected.
We are going to learn from this lose and move on.”
In the loss, the Panthers lost starting junior quarterback Andre Paige in the third quarter as he sustained a concussion on a coverage sack.
“It was a tough night for all of us,” Mixon said.
“We can't dwell on this one (game) because we get back into region play next Friday night against Red Level.”
The Panthers started the game with a promising drive as they drove all the way down to the Eagles 18-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
During the drive, Paige connected on a 40 yard pass to junior Zebbie Mitchell for a key third down conversion.
Senior Cornelius McMeans opened the game with a 30 yard kickoff return.
“We started the game well and drove the ball down the field successfully at the beginning,” Mixon commented.
The Eagles took over at their 18-yard line and marched down the field on a 10-play, 82-yard touchdown drive.
The Eagles ran the ball on all their plays while Cliff Daniels capped off the drive with a six yard run off a toss sweep with 3:43 left in the first quarter.
The two point conversion was successful as quarterback Courtney Rudolph completed a pass to Ladarious Agee.
Down 8-0 before the homecoming crowd, the Panthers then went three and out.
A.L. Johnson kept the momentum on the visiting sidelines as the Eagles jumped to a 14-0 lead with 9:53 left in the half.
The big play that set up the touchdown occurred when James Robinson ran a punt return 45 yards to the Georgiana 3-yard line.
Daniels scored his second TD with a hard run up the middle.
The Panthers responded by driving down the field on a 14-play drive.
Georgiana managed to make it to the Eagles six-yard line before being denied.
Paige threw an interception on fourth and goal with 50 seconds left before half.
“We had a chance to put some points on the board there but it just didn't happen,” Mixon said.
The Panthers recovered two fumbles in the second half but could not take advantage of either.
“I thought our defense played well,” Mixon said.
Mitchell led the team with nine tackles on the night and Gary and junior Donald Scott accounted for seven tackles each.
Junior Ronald Scott chipped in with six tackles while Damien McIntosh, McMeans, Dedric Rich, Boyd and Josh Burkett held their own with key tackles on the night.
On offense, Paige completed 4-of-13 passes for 62 yards before being knocked out of the game with four minutes left in the third quarter. The Panthers only managed three rushing yards in the loss.
“We didn't quit.
We played hard but came out on the losing side of things tonight,” Mixon said.
The Panthers look to get back to their winning ways as they host Red Level next Friday night at Harmon Field.
“We'll start preparing for Red Level on Monday.
We'll break down the film and see what we did wrong and learn from our mistakes,” Mixon said.