On Friday, October 20th, the football team took on Adams Friendship in the first round of the 2023 football playoffs. The Panthers were awarded the 4th seed while Adams Friendship were seeded 5th.
Freshman Drew McConkey will step in the role as quarterback, after junior Luke Baginski’s collarbone injury in the game against Aquinas.
After the first quarter it was still a scoreless game, going into the second quarter in scoring range. McConkey throws a pass to receiver Cater Pontious, the pass was incomplete, but they were able to get a flag against Adam’s Friendship for pass interference. This gave the Panthers a first down and brought them closer to the endzone, McConkey gave a handoff to running back Trevor Arentz who took the ball in for a touchdown. The extra point was blocked by Adam’s Friendship giving us the score of 6-0.
It wasn’t long before the ball was down on our end with our defense working hard to keep them out of the endzone. Adam’s Friendship was able to get the board shortly after, but once again the extra point was blocked, this time by senior Sam Stenberg. Just before the end of the quarter, McConkey passed to receiver Abram Lassen, but it got called back because of a holding call on the Panthers. Going for Lassen again the pass was complete, and he took it all the way to the endzone. Going for the two point conversion, senior Cole Everson got the pass walking into the endzone untouched. Bringing the score to 14-6 at the half.
West Salem didn’t let up after that, getting a blocked punt near the Adam’s Friendship’s endzone, junior Miles Olson picked up the ball and stumbled into the endzone, increasing the score by 7. Still in the third Arntz once again gets the ball off of a handoff from McConkey, giving the Panthers a comfortable lead 33-6. Adam’s Friendship was able to pull off one more touchdown before the end of the game. Bring the score to 33-14, in favor of West Salem.
The Panthers will play away on Friday the 27th against the #1 seed, Lodi.