by Ronnie Hughes | Vype.com
Nov 17, 2018
Port Neches-Groves took care of business, Friday night, at ‘The Reservation’ in the bi-district round the playoffs. The Indians easily handled the Panthers of Northside, 48-7, in a lopsided victory that advances them to the 5A area round of the post season. The Indians have advanced to the area round now for the third consecutive season. In 2017 they made it to the regional round before running into a solid College Station team that would end the Indians season.
The Panthers would receive the opening kickoff, but failed to make it past midfield into Indian territory which would force a punt early; giving fans an idea of what the Panthers offense would be looking at all night against the stout Indians defense. University of Texas commit, Roschon Johnson, got things started completing a 18 yard pass on the first offensive snap of the game for the Indians. Johnson then ripped off a few big runs to extend the drive before finding, Trent Lee, for a 43 yard touchdown pass putting the Indians up, 7-0, with six minutes to play in the first quarter. Northsides next possession they’d finally get into Indian territory, but a big sack by the Indian defense would set the Panthers back on their side of the field and eventually lead to a turnover on downs giving the Indians excellent field position. Johnson and company went right to work quickly moving the ball into the red-zone after a 33 yard run by Johnson Trent Rochelle capped the drive with short three yard touchdown run that put the Indians in control, 14-0, at the end of one quarter of play.
Northside found no answers offensively for the Indian defense and opened the second quarter turning the ball over on downs following two big back-to-back sacks by the Indian defense. The Northside defense, however, began to step up forced the Indians to punt twice on their next two possessions. The Panther defense could only keep up for so long before the Indians had an answer; that answer would be Johnson pointing out the flaws in the Panther defense which eventually led to a 19 yard touchdown pass to Cooper Hammond. The touchdown pass was Johnson’s second of the night while putting the Indians up, 21-0, with just over two minutes left in the first half. The Indian defense came after the Panthers forcing a quick turnover on downs on the next possession giving the offense just enough time to march the field for another score. Johnson notched his third touchdown pass of the first half when he hit Tyler Pippin for a nine yard touchdown pass to extend the Indian lead, 28-0, heading into halftime.
Unfortunately for the Panthers and onlooking fans, the Indians received the second half kickoff. Jaylan Williams ripped off two big runs before Johnson found him for a 17 yard touchdown pass to put the game out of reach, 35-0, with 10 minutes still left in the third quarter of play. The Panther offense continued to struggle, but the defense forced the Indians into a punting situation and a turnover on downs on their next two possessions. The game was already out of reach and the Panthers were pinned inside their own 20 yard line when Indians defensive back, Bergeron, intercepted Panther quarterback, Ronald Holmes, and returned it for a touchdown. Following the extra point the Indians held a commanding lead, 42-0, still with three minutes left in the third quarter.
It wasn’t until the midway point in the fourth quarter that the Panther offense was able to find the end-zone. Holmes was able to lead a stellar drive for the Panthers and cap it off with a two yard touchdown pass to Justin Beaudion to avoid the shutout, 42-7, with six minutes left in the game. The Indians brought in some younger players to give them playoff experience with the game out of reach for the Panthers. Blake Bost led one final scoring drive for the Indians that started at midfield. Bost threw for 28 yards on his lone drive of the night, but would cap the drive with a short two yard touchdown run to end the night, 48-7, with the Indians advancing to next round while the Panthers season has come to an end.
PNG will again move on to the Area playoffs for the third-straight year. The Indians will face the Lindale Eagles, the number two seed from district 9-5A-DII Friday at 8 pm in Houston’s NRG Stadium.
