Don Kuhnen, AP Sports
The EP Panther boys Fresh-Soph hosted Orion Monday night on a beautiful night for football and came away with a high scoring 44-38 victory in the battle of 4-1 teams. EP bounced back from their loss last week to undefeated Newman by dominating the first quarter and then holding on in the final 10 minutes to claim the win.
EP started with the ball on their own 30 and on their third play freshman running back Tristan Hovey broke open around left end for a 55-yard touchdown scamper. The conversion run was stopped to leave the score 6-0.
After a 3 and out by Orion, the Panthers put together a nice 60-yard drive to reach pay dirt again. On third and 2 from the 16, quarterback Keegan Winckler found the endzone on a strong run. He also converted the 2 point attempt and EP led 14-0 with 2:59 left in the opening quarter.
After Grayden Church recovered an onside kick, EP drove deep into Charger territory again but fumbled in the endzone and Orion recovered near the end of the quarter. That’s when the momentum took a drastic change.
Orion got their initial first down as the quarter ended. They continued that drive to get on the board on a quarterback keeper from the 6 yard line. The kick made it 14-7 with 4:37 left in the half.
Hovey returned the kick to the Orion 33 to start the next drive. Winckler finished it off with a 14-yard inside out run to put EP up 20-7.
Orion was then able to score twice in the last 3 minutes to tie the score. A 35-yard screen pass for a score made it 20-13. The Chargers then recovered a Panther fumble on the ensuing kick to take possession on the EP 36. Two plays later a 27-yard pass completion and successful kick sent the 2 teams into intermission tied at 20.
The third quarter began like the first period with the Panther line led by Caleb Reymer, Derek Naftzger and Jordae Crow dominating their smaller Charger opponents. Max Milem followed a crushing Reymer block to break open from 48 yards out to put EP on the board again. His conversion run made it 28-20.
Both teams stalled on a couple of drives before the Chargers used an 11-yard pass to score with 57 seconds remaining in the third. The critical extra point attempt was no good and EP led 28-26 after three.
A 19 yard run by Evan Steimle was a big play in the Panthers next drive which was climaxed by a short touchdown pass and Hovey’s run for the conversion made it 36-26 at the 7:14 mark.
After a deep kickoff, Orion started on their own 12 and a screen pass was picked off by Steimle who rumbled into the end zone for the pick six with six minutes left.
The Panthers ended up needing all 44 points as Orion scored twice in the last couple minutes to make the final 44-38.
Head coach Kyle Foster was happy with his team’s aggressiveness after the Orion comeback. ” We stayed up and got aggressive again after faltering in the second quarter. I told the boys at halftime the breaks will come our way if we can get the early game aggressiveness going again and we did!”
The 5-1 Panthers will host route 2 rival Riverdale next Monday night at 5:30 in Erie.
