Granite City too much for Panthers
BY AARON OTTIS
SPORTS EDITOR
JERSEYVILLE – The Jersey Community High School varsity football team took a loss at the hands of ex-JCHS coach J.D. Lorton Friday.

Lorton, who served as an assistant coach at Jersey Community before coaching at Riverton and now Granite City, led his Warriors to a 33-15 non-conference win at Donald W. Snyders Sports Complex.

Jersey may be 0-2 now, but it wasn’t all bad news. The Panthers scored two touchdowns, something they were not able to do in week one against Jacksonville.

“We played hard. We didn’t start well. We started slow,” said Jersey coach Gary Carter. “During pregame we were running through our plans and we made a lot of mental errors. For some reasons we just weren’t focused. We started the game that way as well. We were able to pull things together in the second half. I think our guys realized that with the way Granite City was playing, we had to step it up.”

While the game got off to a great start for Granite City, the Panthers defense had barely broken a sweat before Troy Fox broke off a 68-yard run to give the Warriors a quick lead.

Fox scored his second touchdown of the game in the second quarter, collecting a pitch from quarterback Lavonce James. James scored on a four-yard keeper to close the first half, leaving Jersey down 21-0 at the break.

“They were a pretty physical team, and we did some things defensively to try to prevent them from running,” Carter said. “We call it digging; we got up on the offensive line and made a pile and tried to force them to run around us. The bad thing about it is that you kind of take yourself out of the play, but we had to fill the holes and not give them a place to run.”

After allowing over 200 yards rushing in the opening week, they gave up 285 yards against the Warriors. Though he knows that Jersey ultimately allowed too many points and too many yards, Carter said it wasn’t so much the amount of yards given up; it was more about allowing the big gains at key parts of the game.

“I’d like to have the jet sweep that they scored on back,” Carter said. “Both our outside backer got blocked and our corner dipped inside. It should have been maybe a 10-yard gain, not a 68-yard touchdown.”

The Panthers’ offense finally broke through at the start of the third quarter. After moderate ground gains by Chase and Quentin Travers, quarterback Luke Barthelmess dropped back and tossed a 49-yard catch-and-run to junior receiver Sam Ficker down the sideline. Ficker also made the PAT, putting the score at 21-7.

Barthelmess was 3-for-10, for 60 yards and two touchdowns. Ficker had one reception for 49 yards, and 10 carries for 57 yards. Sam Pohlman had two catches for 11 yards and a touchdown. Quentin Travers had 14 carries for 50 yards.

Granite City answered with another touchdown on their next drive, and James struck again with a short keeper to start the fourth quarter.

Jersey’s second touchdown came with 24.8 seconds left in the game. Barthelmess capped a 59-yard drive with an eight-yard pass to Pohlman.

“I think Granite City was a more physical team, and they had pretty much everybody back this year on their defense,” Carter said. “We played real hard. We have a lot of guys playing iron man football, and they don’t have as many guys that have to do that. We are getting better every week.”

Jersey is now 0-2, and heads to Rochester this Friday.

The Jersey junior varsity is now 0-2 after losing to Jacksonville 42-8 in week one, and 36-12 this week.

Jersey’s freshman have yet to allow a touchdown, and are 2-0 this season. The freshman game was moved to Jerseyville and started early Satruday, but the Panthers were ready to play. Jersey got on the board late in the first half with a Dillon Travers’ interception return for a touchdown to break the stalemate. Andrew Smith added another interception for the Panthers. The Panthers got the ball rolling in the second half after some halftime adjustments and were able to put another score on the board late in the 4th quarter on a 4-yard TD run by Nik Casper. The freshmen Panthers defense was the key to the 12-0 victory as they continue to shut out their opponents.

Sam Pohlman had one touchdown reception in Jersey's loss to Granite City. Below, Caleb Pomery leaps to intercept a pass in the JV game. Aaron Ottis/thejcstar.com