Kirkwood Football vs. Mehlville 26Sep2008 (2nd HALF)

Final Score:
Mehlville 21 Kirkwood 17

Game played at Mehlville High School

From the http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com

It was a tale of two halves in Friday's Suburban West Conference game between Kirkwood and Mehlville.

The first half was all Pioneers, as they rolled to a 17-0 halftime lead, but, in the second half, a fired-up Panthers squad took over and earned a 21-17 home victory on the strength of a Justin Talley four-yard touchdown run with 1:57 to play. "The kids came back and played really hard," first-year Mehlville coach Eric Meyer. "If we can put four quarters together, who knows what can happen?" Kirkwood, which hadn't lost a conference game since 2005 coming into the season, has now uncharacteristically dropped three straight league games and is 1-3 overall. Mehlville, the defending Class 6 runner-up, improved to 4-1 overall and 4-0 in conference with their fourth straight victory, three of which have been by six points or less. Kirkwood took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards in just two minutes and 34 seconds and scored on DeAndre Buckner's 19-yard run for a 7-0 lead. The Pioneers increased their lead on their next possession, this time amassing an 83-yard drive.
Buckner scored again, this time from five yards out to make it 14-0. The big play on the drive was a 63-yard run by Buckner on third-and-11 from his own 16-yard-line. Following an interception by Montraell Jones, Pioneers kicker Brian Rosser, who converted two earlier point after attempts, boomed through a 41-yard field goal with 4:03 to go in the first half and Kirkwood took that 17-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. They did so by displaying a perfect mix of pass and run in the first 24 minutes. The Pioneers rushed for 137 yards and passed for another 116 in compiling 12 first downs in the first half. By contrast, the Panthers had just 71 yards rushing and 18 more passing at the break. "After that first half, we said 'what are we gonna do, what do we need to do?'" Meyer said. "But, you know what, my coaches did a great job. They were helping me out and telling me some things. I guess what I'm doing well right now is listening. "They said we need to get out there and let our horses do some work and they went out there and proved it in the second half and did a great job." The Panthers took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in just two minutes and 50 seconds. The drive was capped by a six-yard run by Damond Harris and an Aaron Alexander PAT to cut the Kirkwood lead to 17-7.
Later in the third, Alexander had more than enough distance, but was just wide right on a 34-yard field goal attempt with 4:06 left in the quarter. Buckner had the only big Kirkwood offensive play of the second half with a 53-yard run inside the first minute of the fourth quarter, but, two plays later, Phil Blair got the first of his three fourth quarter interceptions near his own goal line and ran it out to his own 44. "Our seniors came up big second half," Meyer said. That led to a spectacular 35-yard TD run by Justin Talley just over two minutes later. Talley started his run to the left, but encountered a bevy of Kirkwood defenders. So, he quickly shifted gears and headed back to the right. There, he picked up some blockers, turned on the afterburners and raced into the end zone for a 17-14 lead after Alexander's PAT. "Unbelievable run," Meyer said. "And there was some great blocking, too. It was just a team play." After another Blair interception near midfield, Mehlville's drive stalled and Kirkwood took over intent on running the clock out. They got it down to 2:02 left to play, but had to punt. As Steven Kwentus readied to boot the ball away, the 6-foot-2, 265-pound Alexander burst through the Kirkwood line and blocked the punt. "He had a great game last week and he had another great game tonight," Meyer said. Mehlville took over at the four and Talley punched it in on the very next play, as the Panthers earned their first lead of the night at 21-17. Kirkwood had one more chance to score and 1:57 to do it in, but two plays into the drive, Eberhardt's pass was picked off by Blair and the Panthers had themselves a come-from-behind victory. After getting just the 71 yards on the ground, the Panthers exploded for 249 in the second half to finish with 320 as a team. As is the Mehlville way, they spread it out nicely, as Talley had a team-high 110, Tyrone Clark had 91 and Harris and Christian Stewart had 57 apiece. "We try to keep them fresh and keep them grinding and they'll go in hard and do a great job," Meyer said. "These kids don't complain when they don't get the ball a lot. A lot of programs, one kid gets it and rushes for 230, 240 yards." Buckner finished with 202 yards on the ground, but Kirkwood compiled just 80 yards in the second half after their big first half. "Kirkwood's got a good football team. They're explosive," Meyer said. "Our kids did a really good job coming back the second half."

Category:

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• Pioneer
• Pioneers
• Suburban
• West
• Mehlville

[thatnikkajohn]

gay

[TR3Y4LI4E]

@JH4lifes

oakville is better

[timelydeath]

at 00:43 the opposite side d end got him.. wow

SPEED

[JH4lifes]

mehlville did great in te second half of this game. whoever blocked the kick idk who but it was awsome. then clark got the td!. im a quadruplet at mehlville and a freshman. mehlville is beast!.

[mehlvillestar62]

we r the best mehlville panter rules

[Codebreaka77]

Lol I got the wrong team mixed up... He did coach the Las Vegas Palo Verde Panthers lol and I meant Torin Harris! lol my bad

[Th3Carter3]

No Kris Davis has coached Mehlville's defense...

[Th3Carter3]

The best part is Talley's run at about 4:15. That's nuts.

And the two huge blocks springing him into the end zone.

[bosna314stl]

yea. they were trying to copy us cuz we were chanting its not over than we scored .lol.

[cornellquattro]

yeah, I think he's talking about Tyrone Clark. Not sure about the USC thing.

My favorite part is at 8 minutes when they say it's not over, and then theres an intereception right then. And then it really is over.