Week 3 Preview: Pinckneyville 0-2 at Benton 1-1

by Steve Dunford

Benton QB Hamilton Page (10), with receivers Cade Thomas (4) and Joey Craig (18) wide to the right in Week 1 against Carterville (Thank you Lana Schilli for allowing me to use your pics)

The Pinckneyville Panthers make their second trip to Franklin County on consecutive Friday nights at they face off against the Benton Rangers tonight at Tabor Field.

The Panthers (0-2)  fell at Johnson field as The West Frankfort Redbirds defeated them 36-14.  The Rangers went on the road and defeated the Sparta Bulldogs 29-13.  Tonight, West Frankfort will be traveling to Sparta, as both teams traditionally switch off opponents in weeks two and three.

On last weeks victory, Benton Coach Bob Pankey had this to say about last week’s win at Sparta, “Sparta we racked up 440 yards of offense but only put 28 points on the board. We dropped 2 TD passes and we dropped an interception that would have definitely gone for a TD as well. So we left at least 18 points on the field. I like how our offense moved the ball LastFriday night We just have to finish more drives. I also felt like our defense rose up when it needed to and got stops, kind of a ‘bend but don’t break’ approach. To be able to win even though we didn’t play our best shows the resiliency of our guys. Now we just need to clean up those mistakes for tonight.  

Stats from the Week Two victory will be included at the end.

About the upcoming matchup with Pinckneyville tonight,   “Pinckneyville’s line is big on both sides of the ball and seem to play fairly physical. Their skill positions are mostly seniors which means they have some experience. They will be well coached…Coach Rushing does a good job. They work in a lot of jet motion and misdirection so we will need to play ‘assignment-sound’ football.”

This will be a good measuring stick to see how the Rangers stack up entering into SIRR Ohio division play next week.  With week one opponent Carterville travelling to Murphysboro, and West Frankfort going to Sparta tonight will be a good measuring stick to see as they have the unenvious task of going to Herrin to open conference play.

As of now, I would slot the SIRR-Ohio going in as; 1. Herrin, 2. Harrisburg 3. Benton 4/5 Murphysboro and/or West Frankfort and 6. Massac County.

I am going with the Rangers by 21 tonight.  It will be another notch in their belt for a team that I can see playing in Week 10.

Week 2 Stats against Sparta

Box Score Report – 9/1/2017 7:00 PM
BOX SCORE

Benton 6   23   0   0     -29
Sparta 6     7     0   0 –   13
SCORING PLAYS

Benton 1 12:00 #10 Hamilton Page pass complete to #4 Cade Thomas for 75 yards.
Touchdown! (Point after kick by #1 Ian McMahon no good)
6 – 0 Benton

Sparta 1 12:00 #3 pass complete to #4 for 22 yards. Touchdown! 6-6

Benton 2 12:00 #46 Blane Pankey runs for 4 yards. Touchdown! (Two point conversion pass by #10 Hamilton Page to #18 Joseph Craig good) 14- 6 Benton

Benton 2 12:00 #15 Andrew Dunn runs for 4 yards. Touchdown! (Point after kick by #1 Ian
McMahon good) 21- 6 Benton

Benton 2 12:00 #10 Hamilton Page pass complete to #7 Neal Carlton for 21 yards. Touchdown! (Two point conversion run by #46 Blane Pankey good) 29- 6 Benton

Benton 2 12:00 #10 Hamilton Page pass intended for Team. Intercepted by Team. (Point after
kick by #9 good) 29 -13  Benton

Ranger Stats to Date

Name                       G Att Yds Avg TD YPG
#46 Blane Pankey 2 21 172 8.2 1 86.0
#10 Hamilton Page 2 26 97 3.7 2 48.5
#15 Andrew Dunn 2 11 51 4.6 1 25.5
#4 Cade Thomas 2 1 10 10.0 0 5.0
#18 Joseph Craig 2 1 (-2) (-2.0) 0 (-1.0)

PASSING
Name                       G Cmp Att Yds TD Int YPG Pct QBR
#10 Hamilton Page 2 33 61 405 2 2 202.5 54.1% 114.1

RECEIVING
Name                     G Rec Yds Avg TD YPG
#4 Cade Thomas 2 12 150 12.5 1 75.0
#7 Neal Carlton   2 7 106 15.1 1 53.0
#99 Bailey Hopson 2 5 64 12.8 0 32.0
#18 Joseph Craig 2 6 57 9.5 0 28.5
#15 Andrew Dunn 2 1 23 23.0 0 11.5
#46 Blane Pankey 2 2 5 2.5 0 2.5

DEFENSE
Name                       Total Tackles Solo Assist Sack – Yds TFL Safeties Pass Breakups
#46 Blane Pankey 21 9 24 0 – 0 6 0 0
#12 Ty Gordon 9.5 8 3 0 – 0 3.5 0 2
#15 Andrew Dunn 9.5 6 7 0 – 0 1.5 0 0
#18 Joseph Craig 8 1 14 1 – 0 3.5 0 0
#76 Tyler Butler 7.5 5 5 1.5 – 0 1.5 0 1
#4 Cade Thomas 7 5 4 0 – 0 2.5 0 2
#68 Warren Smothers 7 3 8 0.5 – 0 1.5 0 0
#17 Caleb Pemberton 6 2 8 0 – 0 1 0 0
#7 Neal Carlton 5 2 6 0 – 0 0.5 0 1
#77 Tristan Bigham 3.5 0 7 0 – 0 0.5 0 0
#44 Dalton Roberts 1 0 2 0 – 0 0 0 0
#99 Bailey Hopson 1 1 0 0 – 0 0 0 0
#71 Austin Crawford 1 0 2 0 – 0 0.5 0 0
#66 Lane Kelley 1 0 2 0 – 0 0 0 0
#62 Carston Sanders 0.5 0 1 0 – 0 0.5 0 0
#9 Jaxon Williams 0.5 0 1 0 – 0 0 0 0