Patrick Maloy pulls in a long pass for a Sale Creek touchdown.
photo by M.A. Locke
Four weeks ago the Sale Creek football program got the word it would soon have a football stadium to call home to start the 2020 football season after wandering through the first seven years of the program’s existence from gridiron to gridiron, basically a homeless gypsy of sorts.
Since that major announcement – and until they have their official home – the Panthers have found a home that suits them just fine, a comfortable little place called the left side of the win column.
Sale Creek continued what has turned into a historic season with a program best fourth win Friday night, clinching the program’s second postseason playoff spot in the process, and doing so by turning in its most dominate win ever with a 55-6 beat down of rival Lookout Valley as a large contingent of the community looked on at Lookout Valley’s Joe Bean Stadium.
It was Sale Creek’s fourth consecutive win after losing its first four to open the season and the 55 points and the margin of victory were both tops for a program that began in 2013 with 20 straight losses.
“We are three points away from being 6-2, and honestly, we should be 6-2, but we’re taking baby steps, and to be able to come out and play like we did tonight against our biggest rival sure feels good.
Sometimes learning to win is the hardest thing. They’ve beaten us pretty good the last two years and I really pushed the guys hard this week, and they responded,” said Sale Creek coach Ron Cox, who has coached every game in the program’s seven-year history.
The Panthers have certainly been on the wrong side of their share of mercy rule games, but thanks to a 42-point first half explosion in which they scored on all six of their possessions, they enjoyed a running clock for the second half that saw Lookout Valley only run 13 offensive plays.
Sale Creek needed just two plays to open the scoring after getting the opening kickoff as junior quarterback Braden Penny found a wide open Patrick Maloy on a fly pattern for a 66-yard score. It was the first of three scores in the opening quarter. The Jackets, in fact, ran only six offensive plays during a stretch in which Sale Creek put up 20 points.
After a Lookout Valley punt on its opening drive, the Panthers needed three plays to travel the 51 yards with Penny going 34 yards on a keeper. The PAT was blocked by Naurice Pitman to make it 13-0, but the Panthers got the ball right back with Zeke Levi recovering a surprise onside kick. Levi ended the four-play 38-yard drive with a 15-yard scamper, and his PAT made it 20-0 with 5:19 left in the first quarter.
“We wanted to come out fast. We’ve been waiting for this game and looking forward to it for some time. They are our rivals and we wanted to make a statement. This is the first time we’ve ever won two region games. We got off to a slow start this year, but every since we got the news we were getting a stadium, it’s been a different team. Early in the year we struggled trying to find our identity but since then we’ve found it. We believe in each other,” said Penny, who ran for 82 yards and threw for another 116 in the win.
Lookout Valley (0-9, 0-3) had its best drive of the night after the score with freshman quarterback Brett Rogers showing his grit with a big 39-yard pass to Corey Talley on a third-down conversion, and taking it in for the score on a 4-yard keeper. Rogers was harassed all night long, getting sacked four times and being forced into three interceptions, but the youngster hung in there and proved quite an elusive target.
Sale Creek’s Ethan Hyde had three of the solo sacks and was in on the other one as well, while Camden Penny had two of the interceptions and Levi the other one.
The biggest difference in the game,though, was the outstanding line play of the Panthers. Race May, Dale Shirley, Malcom Key Ben Turner and Jacon Francisco opened up hole after hole as the Panthers racked up 341 rushing yards on 32 runs.
Junior Will Roberts led the attack with 118 yards on 11 first-half carries and scored on three straight second quarter possessions. The first came on a 4-yard bolt to open the quarter, but the biggest was an 80-yard up the middle burst to make it 34-6 with just 2:58 left before the half. Penny’s interception got them the ball back and his 22-yard return set them up for business at the 30. Roberts scored on a third-down run from the 8 with just 38 seconds remaining.
“We just had a really good attitude at practice this week with a focus on fixing our mistakes. We’ve got a bunch of French exchange students at school and they don’t understand much of anything we are saying, but they sure were excited about the game tonight. We wanted to put on a good show for them,” said Roberts.
With the clock running and shortening the game considerably the second d half, neither team scored in the third, but Sale Creek added two more in the final period to set the school record for points. Seth Hodge went untouched up the gut on a 49-yard run, and after another onside kick recovery by Braxton Painter (who also had the night’s biggest hit on a kickoff return tackle), Nick Hall got a one-yard score in mop up duty.
“I’ve told the team all year we would be as good as the offensive line allowed us to be. Most of these kids have grown up in the program and seen it evolve from the ground up. They’ve bought into it. We had a great summer and a lot of participation. It’s the best conditioned we have been, and the strongest team we’ve had.
“I think the announcement of the stadium was big for us because it showed the kids the community believed in them, and they are starting to believe in themselves. We just need to get that win that nobody expects us to get and make some noise in the playoffs,” said Coach Cox.
Sale Creek will get that first chance next week when it hosts top-ranked South Pittsburg, which incidentally provided another first for the program last night by sending scouts to watch the team for the first time prior to one of their meetings.
It was a historic night indeed.
STATS
SALE CREEK 20 22 0 13 – 55
LOOKOUT VALLEY 6 0 0 0 – 6
SC – Patrick Maloy 66 pass from Braden Penny (Zeke Levi kick) (10:44, 1st)
SC – Braden Penny 34 run (kick blocked) (7:16, 1st)
SC – Zeke Levi 15 run (Zeke Levi kick) (5:19, 1st)
LV– Brett Rogers 4 run (kick blocked) (1:06, 1st)
SC – Will Roberts 4 run (Korbyn Brown pass from Braden Penny) (9:55, 2nd)
SC – Will Roberts 80 run (Kick failed) (2:58, 2nd)
SC – Will Roberts 8 run (Will Roberts run) (0:38, 2nd)
SC – Seth Hodge 49 run (Zeke Levi kick) (9:56, 4th)
SC – Nick Hall 1 run (kick blocked) (4:08, 4th)
SC STATS LV
14 1st Downs 13
32-341 Rush 32-132
116 Pass 69
457 Total 191
4-5-0 Passes 4-17-3
8-72 Penalties 7-64
1-32.0 Punts 2-27.0
2-0 Fumbles 1-0
Individual Stats
Rushing: Will Roberts 7-118, Braden Penny 7-82, Seth Hodge 8-72, Braxton Painter 1-31, Amari Roddy 2-21 (SC); Blake Ferguson 4-44, Corey Talley 6-35, Brett Rogers 15-30, Jaxon Quails 7-24 (LV).
Passing: Braden Penny 4-5-0 116 yards (SC); Brett Rogers 4-15-3 69 yards, Blake Ferguson 0-2-0 0 yards (LV)
Receiving: Patrick Maloy 1-66, Zeke Levi 1-33, Camden Penny 1-11, Seth Hodge 1-6 (SC); Corey Talley 1-35, Blake Ferguson 1-16, Jaxon Quails 2-14 (LV).
Records: Sale Creek (4-4, 2-1 Region 3-A), Lookout Valley (0-9, 0-3 Region 3-A)
(Contact James Beach via email at 1134james@gmail.com or Twitter @beachnut1134)
Sale Creek fans cheer a Panther touchdown.
photo by M.A. Locke