|
|
|
Business News
Kansas City, MO —
Despite not running a play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Truman managed to take a lead into the fourth against Park Hill South.
But the Patriots couldn’t get the clutch defensive plays they needed to take Friday’s battle between two Suburban Middle Six teams seeking their first win.
The host Panthers called on the legs of Myles Hammonds 46 times – 23 in each half – and the senior running back, playing his first full game since midseason last year due to an ankle injury, delivered for 223 yards.
Hammonds led a Park Hill South offense that ran more than twice as many plays as Truman, 78 to 36. That total included a 14-play scoring drive in the final minutes of the second quarter, ending with Shaefer Schuetz’s 3-yard pass to Craig Scott with 11 seconds showing. The missed extra point allowed Truman a 7-6 halftime edge.
But that trek paled in comparison to what came after halftime.
Starting at the 20, the Panthers got a 16-yard jaunt from Hammonds on first down, then methodically converted five straight fourth-down plays, overcoming a penalty along the way. The first four conversions came with a yard or two to go.
The points finally came on play No. 27: another Schuetz-to-Scott connection on a short out pattern, this time from 8 yards on fourth-and-4.
“That first drive the second half was the killer,” Truman coach Jeff Floyd said. “Three or four fourth-down conversions they made, all barely, and we didn’t play the pass particularly well. They’ve got a good receiver, but we needed to get off the field and we didn’t do it.
“When you give somebody four downs, especially on that side of the field, that makes it tough. We had some opportunities, we got in the quarterback’s face, we had some (play) calls I thought would be good for us. We just didn’t convert.”
A holding penalty nullified a two-point conversion pass, and Park Hill South then missed another extra point, leaving the score at 12-7.
That advantage lasted just 13 seconds, as Truman’s Demetric Dinwiddie took the kickoff, ran untouched through a hole in the middle, deked the kicker and raced 92 yards for a touchdown. J.T. Hayes found Scott Agee for the two-point conversion and an improbable 15-12 lead.
“The guys did their job, they made a gap for me,” said Dinwiddie, who also rushed for 47 yards on eight carries. “Coach told me before that play, it was like, ‘Hey, we need a score.’ I told him, ‘I’m taking it to the house.’”
Despite not running a play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Truman managed to take a lead into the fourth against Park Hill South.
But the Patriots couldn’t get the clutch defensive plays they needed to take Friday’s battle between two Suburban Middle Six teams seeking their first win.
The host Panthers called on the legs of Myles Hammonds 46 times – 23 in each half – and the senior running back, playing his first full game since midseason last year due to an ankle injury, delivered for 223 yards.
Hammonds led a Park Hill South offense that ran more than twice as many plays as Truman, 78 to 36. That total included a 14-play scoring drive in the final minutes of the second quarter, ending with Shaefer Schuetz’s 3-yard pass to Craig Scott with 11 seconds showing. The missed extra point allowed Truman a 7-6 halftime edge.
But that trek paled in comparison to what came after halftime.
Starting at the 20, the Panthers got a 16-yard jaunt from Hammonds on first down, then methodically converted five straight fourth-down plays, overcoming a penalty along the way. The first four conversions came with a yard or two to go.
The points finally came on play No. 27: another Schuetz-to-Scott connection on a short out pattern, this time from 8 yards on fourth-and-4.
“That first drive the second half was the killer,” Truman coach Jeff Floyd said. “Three or four fourth-down conversions they made, all barely, and we didn’t play the pass particularly well. They’ve got a good receiver, but we needed to get off the field and we didn’t do it.
“When you give somebody four downs, especially on that side of the field, that makes it tough. We had some opportunities, we got in the quarterback’s face, we had some (play) calls I thought would be good for us. We just didn’t convert.”
A holding penalty nullified a two-point conversion pass, and Park Hill South then missed another extra point, leaving the score at 12-7.
That advantage lasted just 13 seconds, as Truman’s Demetric Dinwiddie took the kickoff, ran untouched through a hole in the middle, deked the kicker and raced 92 yards for a touchdown. J.T. Hayes found Scott Agee for the two-point conversion and an improbable 15-12 lead.
“The guys did their job, they made a gap for me,” said Dinwiddie, who also rushed for 47 yards on eight carries. “Coach told me before that play, it was like, ‘Hey, we need a score.’ I told him, ‘I’m taking it to the house.’”
Dinwiddie also scored Truman’s first touchdown, a 6-yarder to cap an 11-play, 72-yard drive in the first quarter.
He then snuffed Park Hill South’s subsequent drive by intercepting a pass toward the sideline and returning it 50 yards to the Panther 20. However, two holding penalties crippled the Patriots’ chances to pad their lead, and they turned it over on downs.
“We just made too many mistakes; holding penalties that killed drives for us,” Floyd said. “That’s something we’ve gotta fix. We had the ball at the 30, had them on the ropes and weren’t able to put anything on the board.”
Following Dinwiddie’s big kick return, Park Hill South faced a first-and-33 early in the fourth after its own pair of penalties. But Schuetz found a wide-open Nick Griffith down the left sideline for 56 yards. Two plays later Schuetz’s swing pass barely beat a blitzing linebacker and landed in the hands of Scott, who sidestepped a defender on his way to a 20-yard touchdown with 10:29 left.
Truman punted away its next possession after two first downs, then caught a break when Shawn Stevens fell on a Hammonds fumble with 2:38 remaining. A pass interference put the Patriots in Panther territory, but a bad snap on first down meant a 7-yard loss, and Hayes’ passes on third and fourth down were off the mark.
One last incompletion came with 0.4 of a second showing, after Park Hill South took three knees and ran a successful sweep play out of the punt formation, only to have Griffith gallop 60-plus yards and fumble into the end zone for a touchback.
“We had too many defensive mistakes,” Dinwiddie said. “We tried to overcome that, but it was one too many.”
