Panthers Feeling Great After District-Opening Win

Quinlan Ford Head Coach Derek Alford had spent the first half of the season encouraging his players to continue to work hard in practice, promising the payoff would appear soon.

After Friday’s 37-7 win over Princeton, it is likely Alford has a bunch of true believers.

He said his team continued its solid play on both sides of the football, something it has done since the start of the season. The difference was in the result, he added.

"We had been playing about that well all season, but the difference is things went our way and we were rewarded for it…It was fun for the kids," Alford said.

Soggy turf conditions at Lytal Field might have helped even the situation in hampering the speedy Princeton squad. "We have kids who play better in the mud than most," Alford noted.

But muddy field or not, Princeton could not stop the surge of a Ford team that prevailed after going down 7-0 early. Princeton’s Noel Nevarez scored on a 13-yard pass from quarterback Trevor Schilling after Ford had fumbled the ball away on its first possession.

Special teams came to the rescue for Ford. On the ensuing kickoff, Tim Chumley raced 92 yards to knot the game after the extra-point kick.

"That was a situation where our kids could have hung their heads, but they didn’t. We returned the kickoff for a touchdown and then proceeded to score 30 more unanswered points," Alford said.

Kyle Stone ran for one touchdown and threw for two more, including a 22-yard pass to Garrett Crosby and a 13-yarder to Al Balliette. Aside from Chumley’s fireworks, Tyler McBride had the other big scoring play of the night on a 38-yard run.

Ford ended the night with 309 yards offense, 262 of that from the rushing game.

Meanwhile, the Ford defense tacked on two points in the third quarter on a safety and stonewalled Princeton the rest of the game. The visitors came away with just 114 yards total offense.

Manuel Castilleja was a nightmare for Princeton’s offense. The junior defensive tackle racked up 10 tackles, including a quarterback sack and two more behind the line of scrimmage. He also made a big stop on fourth down and was credited with batting down one pass and pressuring Schilling twice.

Tyler McBride had an interception, Balliette chipped in with five tackles including two quarterback sacks and defensive end Jordan Burks had five tackles, four assists, a fourth-down stop, two quarterback pressures and two tackles for a loss.

Ford hopes to keep the good times going tonight (Friday) in its first district road game against the Lovejoy Leopards.

Alford said Lovejoy, which dropped its district opener last Friday to Farmersville, 28-19, is a very fast, quick team.

"They are very balanced on offense, even though they work out of the spread formation. But they can run or throw it very well," he said.

"Defensively, if we can cover (the pass) well, I think our front guys can play well enough to win. If we can control the line of scrimmage, there are not a whole lot of teams that are going to have success against us there," Alford added.