GSL football: Balanced Panthers roll past Knights

Locked in a struggle early in the second quarter against East Valley and squandering a scoring opportunity by fumbling into the end zone, Mead turned to quarterback Glen Reser and its running-game-by-committee approach to win going away Thursday.

The Panthers (3-1, 2-1 Greater Spokane League) defeated the Knights (2-2, 2-2) 40-6 at Joe Albi Stadium to position themselves for a three-week gantlet of games against 4A playoff hopefuls.

Mead led 7-6 with 8 minutes, 4 seconds to play in the half when Darien Hatch raced 63 yards following the kickoff and a play later had first-and-goal at the 8-yard line. But James Allen lost the football on his way to score, momentarily thwarting his team.

Three plays later, Max Kayser picked off a pass and the Panthers were on their way.

Reser, who finished the half completing 8 of 11 passes for 141 yards, hit favorite target Matt Lynch for a 37-yard flat pass score.

On their next series, beginning with 3 minutes left and following a defensive stop, the Panthers covered 57 yards in nine plays to lead 20-6.

It took just three plays, all by Allen on the ground in just more than a minute, to make it 27-6 following intermission. Game over.

“We wanted to step it up on offense because we had been struggling a bit,” said Reser, who directed a game that featured myriad backs on a variety of traps, dives and sweeps piling up 282 yards, while turning in an efficient passing night. “Our line did really good and we just did what we could.”

He threw for the two early touchdowns and let the runners do the rest.

“We ran good today,” Reser said. “I think we had better intensity. It was a big win for us.”

The Knights suffered an early blow when quarterback Lonnie Quirk injured his hip on a first-quarter run to the sidelines that came following Reser’s TD to Scott Fulkerson.

But EV came back when backup Ike Falk lofted a 40-yard strike to Danny Matthews to the 3-yard line to set up Case Parker’s scoring plunge in the second period.

Although Parker finished with 132 rushes on 20 carries, it was pretty much all Mead thereafter.

“We’re just trying to win the games we didn’t last year,” said coach Sean Carty. “So far, so good.”

Allen, Seth Moore and Fulkerson took turns carrying the football. While they amassed a combined 121 yards by intermission, they really went to work in the second half.

Allen’s 45-yard touchdown run right after the break helped him to 90 for the game on nine carries. Moore had a 48-yard scoring scamper and ended up with 99 on seven attempts, and Fulkerson finished with 48, mainly by halftime.

As the score mounted, nine Panthers carried the ball. Matt Lynch finished with five catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

“They (EV) bring so much heat (on defense) that we won some and lost some those battles,” said Carty of Mead’s ability to produce more than a dozen double-digit yardage plays, while suffer a couple of double-digit losses.

Ferris 49, Shadle Park 7: In a non-league game between GSL foes at Albi, the unbeaten Saxons (4-0, 3-0) made short work of the Highlanders (1-3, 1-2).

The Saxons got their hands on four punts, blocking two that led to a 14-0 first-quarter lead. One was recovered by Adrian Milsap in the end zone and the other at the 10-yard line. The score was 35-0 by halftime and Ferris had its final two touchdowns early in the third quarter.

Ferris did most of its damage on the ground, rushing for 335 yards.

Ferris’ Jeff Minnerly threw for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, one to Nate Tonani. He hit Jared Karstetter three times for 74 yards.

Tonani added two touchdowns on the ground, one of them a 30-yarder to complete the Ferris scoring. McKenzie Murphy also had two TDs, one covering 42 yards after intermission. Nine different players had carries.