Friday, September 14, 2007

The Paradise High School football team had just one thing on its mind Friday night - its homecoming date with Electra, and there were no plans of being kind.

The only dancing on this date was the Panthers' defense waltzing over Electra's offensive unit. They tamed the Tigers from start to finish and were never challenged in a 46-0 victory in front of an overflow crowd.

The Paradise defense was the highlight of the game. The group allowed just two first downs, 23 yards of total offense and dropped the Tigers for no gain or negative yardage 19 times.

After a sluggish first quarter, the Panthers finally took advantage great field position to score three times in the final 12 minutes of the opening half.

Nick Pike plowed in the end zone from a yard out and C.J. Kerr danced his way to a score from six yards out. Brolan Gentry, who had his best performance of the season returned an interception 18 yards for a touchdown to put the game out of reach at the half, 26-0.

"Our defense really got after it tonight. I was real pleased with the way they contained Electra," said PHS coach Danny Neighbors. "We have several guys hurt right now, and we lost another tonight, so we needed a game like this where we could use a lot of guys. We didn't play all that well in the first, but after that we did what we needed to."

The win lifted Paradise to 2-1 for the year while EHS slipped to 0-3. The Panthers will travel to Pilot Point next Friday night.

Paradise's first drive of the game ended on downs at its own 9 yard line. The defense, however, stopped the Tigers in four plays to get the ball back for the first score. P.J. Fuller hit Kerr on the first play of the next drive for a 31-yard touchdown. Thad Limke was good on the kick to make it 7-0 with 6:01 left in the first period.

The Panthers, who rolled up 22 first downs and 377 yards of offense, came out in the third quarter to show Electra there would be no change of momentum after the break. Gentry split the defensive line for a 26-yard touchdown and a 33-0 Panther lead.

Three minutes later Nick Pike scored on a 39-yard run to make it 40-0. The officials kept the clock running the rest of the game but Jonathan Lee scored before time expired when he broke free for a 14-yard touchdown run.

The defense was solid all four quarters. Cody Webber, Zack Strand, Kendell Dethloff and Jake Bugg were just a few of the Panthers to record tackles.