It seems like it’s been an eternity since I was able to sit down and watch a football game. Whenever the Big Game in early February concludes, and we are ‘Football-less’ for a couple of months, the summer can feel long. I’m lucky I love baseball. It’s a great feeling to have football back. Pre-season doesn’t count, and neither do scrimmages – thanks, I’ll take games that matter.
Coming off a year where Paradise’s offense produced 2 All-District qualifiers in Ayden Olalde and Elijah Jennings, the Panthers would make a deep push in their post-season run just to be stopped by a team they had already beaten previously in the season. The Peaster Greyhounds, who surely opened their season on the right foot with a 21-14 loss to Pilot Point. Olalde and Jennings were great – Olalde threw for over 240 yards on 31 attempts with 4 Touchdowns. Jennings attracted all the attention to himself last night, making it possible for Sawyer Murphy to have 2 receiving touchdowns – one was great in the back corner of the end zone – we will get to that later.
NOW FOR THE BALLGAME:
Chase Harmon and Elijah Jennings were back deep to receive the opening kickoff when it came end over end into, and out of, the hands of Chase Harmon. This was the first of about 4 different muffs we saw from last night, none of them however were recovered by the kicking team. Harmon scooped his own muffed in his own endzone and would take it out to the 25 where a Paradise drive would stall at the 50 to punt it away to Ponder.
A quick drive from the Ponder Lions punts it right back to Paradise where it would put the Panthers on their own 10 yard line. A couple 3rd down conversions and 1 4th down conversion thanks to Ayden Olalde would push the football into Ponder’s RedZone where Olalde would toss it to Harmon out of the backfield for 6, and Paradise’s first points of the new year. 7-0 Paradise.
Ponder would drive down the field after starting at their 30, making it to about the Paradise 15 before Antle would knock it through for their first score of the new year 7-3 Paradise. The rest of the 1Q would be pretty slow – onto the 2Q we go with Paradise driving.
Right of break the Panthers push it down the field for Olalde to find a gap in the secondary of the Lions for a 15-yard rushing TD. That was with 3:00 left in the Half. Side Note: The last 3 minutes of the first half took 15 minutes. It was lengthy, but positive for the Panthers. Ponder would go 3 and X on their following drive for a chance for Paradise to tack on again before the half. A 40-yard drive would conclude with a back-corner, back-shoulder throw-and-catch between Olalde and Murphy. That was the first for the SO Murphy. 21-3 Panthers.
Out of Half, Ponder received the kick and took it out to the 50-yard line. A personal foul on Paradise during the kickoff would spot it at Paradise’s 35. One play, and Allred ran it in for 6. 21-10. Everything that happened in that 10-second span was a bit annoying.
Paradise responded alright with 21 unanswered points. Olalde to Murphy in 3 plays, 28-10. Harmon on a handoff | 35-10. Olalde to Levi Clayton through the air | 42-10. All by the time the 3Q still had 2 minutes remaining on the clock. When I talked to Coach Koch after the game, he said: “We only played 1 Quarter of football.” It was that quarter – they looked unbeatable.
Let’s skip the 4th Quarter? Let’s. 22 unanswered points in the 4th for Ponder with a mix of starters and backups in and out of the game. They need to work on their ‘kill-clock’ game. Like seriously. Nothing to bother so far, it’s week 1, and the game was never really “close.”
1-0. 42-32. Head Coach Tommy Koch said they only played 1Q of football, and that quarter was phenomenal. The other 3 were just good enough to take another win from Ponder against Paradise. Ponder hasn’t gotten it done against the Panthers since 2016. Barnacles.
Paradise @ Godley next Friday at 7. See you next week.