John Glen escapes late game scare from New Lexington
By: Dylan Westmeyer
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NEW CONCORD, Ohio (WOUB)— The John Glen Muskies Defense held off the New Lexington Panthers to take the game 14-13.
The New Lexington Panthers (2-1) traveled to John Glen (3-0) to take on the Muskies in a Muskingum-Valley League matchup of 2-0 teams. In last year’s matchup, the Panthers took down the Muskies with a score of 26-14.
John Glen took the kickoff and drove all the way down the field with a steady diet of ground-and-pound action with three passes thrown in. Two of the three pass plays kept the drive going starting with a 35-yard pass play from Senior Noah Winland to Jake Johnson and then a six-yard TD pass from Winland to Ryder Pennington taking first blood and a 7-0 lead. T
The Muskie defense would then dominate as they picked off the Panthers quarterback Isaiah Stephens not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in the first half. After the fourth interception, John Glen Winland would scamper 51 yards all the way to the house to put the Muskies on top 14-0.
Stephens would not stand down however as he threw a 41-yard bomb to Carson Kellogg to kickstart the New Lexington offense as the half came down to an end Stephens would scurry eight yards into the endzone closing the gap to 14-7 John Glen at half.
The second half started with both defenses absolutely stifling both offenses as going into the fourth the score would stay 14-7.
Early in the fourth New Lexington would stop John Glen on a fourth and one attempt on the John Glen 35 that would lead to their second score of the game off of a 12-yard carry, nine-yard pass, and a 15-yard pass to Bently Hanson who made a gorgeous over the shoulder catch to get into the endzone.
The John Glen extra-point team was able to step up and block the extra point keeping the lead 14-13. The Muskies would control their destiny with a third and short to ice the game and the Panthers would force a fumble to take over and give the offense one final chance to win the game.
New Lexington would drive down to the 26-yard line where the John Glen defense would force three incompletions after the Panthers spiked it on first down to end the game.
John Glen goes to 3-0 and will travel to Coshocton to take on the Redskins who are 0-3. New Lexington will take on the Tornados of West Muskingum who are 2-1.