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Washington Evening Journal
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Panthers downed by Grayhounds
Mt. Pleasant falls to Burlington, readies for Homecoming
MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant football team just couldn’t get the ball in the end zone on Friday night against Burlington. The Grayhounds defeated the Panthers 42-7 at Mapleleaf Athletic Complex.
The Panthers, already playing without injured starting quarterback Cooper Coleman, took another huge hit on the first play when leading rusher and receiver Jurha Turner went down with a lower body injury.
Burlington capitalized and then some, scoring the first 21 points of the night.
After stopping Mt. Pleasant on a 4th down try on the other side of the 50, Burlington drove the field and scored the first of six rushing touchdowns. The next Panther drive, Burlington blocked a punt, scored from the five, and it was 14-0 after one quarter.
Burlington went up 21-0 early in the first quarter, but Mt. Pleasant would eventually find a groove with Payton Walker running up the middle. Walker, who moved from running back, bowled his way through Grayhound defenders over and over en route to a short touchdown run to cut it to 21-7.
“He goes out and gets after it,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach John Bowlin. “He's definitely out heart and soul out there that goes 100 percent every play.”
The Panthers trailed 28-7 at halftime after another Grayhound score. Mt. Pleasant had a shot to cut the lead back to 14, but Burlington stopped the Panthers at the 1-yard line, drove the field and scored the dagger.
“I still thought our guys were moving the line of scrimmage as the game went on, and then we'd just stall out,” Bowlin said. “So we did do some decent things on the line of scrimmage, but it's got to happen every day.”
Burlington scored once in the fourth quarter to put the final nail in the coffin.
Walker ran the ball 23 times for 77 yards and a touchdown to lead Mt. Pleasant. He also threw for 110 yards and one interception.
Payson Coleman was the team’s leading receiver, catching one ball that went for 64 yards down the Burlington sideline. Lou Schimmelpfennig caught three balls for 41 yards.
Walker led the defense with seven tackles on the day. Carson Andreasen had 5.5 tackles, and both Phoenix Watson and Kellen Kohorst had four.
Mt. Pleasant is now 0-4. The Panthers play against currently second-ranked Mount Vernon (3-1) for Homecoming this Friday. Mount Vernon will likely be ranked lower after a loss to Solon this weekend.
