Quarterback sparks offense with his feet; defense stout throughout
Shorewood Stadium - Despite playing most of the game with a sputtering offense, the Milwaukee Panthers club football team finally struck paydirt twice in the second half to knock off the Parkside Rangers, 12-9, in their season opener from Shorewood Stadium.
Starting quarterback Ian Lutfiyya (lut-fee-uh) had quite a bit of trouble with the Rangers' pass rush for the first three quarters, but started finding the mark in the third half. It was all about his feet.
In the closing drive of the third quarter leading into the fourth, Lutfiyya had four rushes for positive yards, forcing the Rangers to leave one player back from the pass rush that was obviously not getting to him before he took off. Lutfiyya, a receiver by trade, then started hitting his passes.
After a touchdown pass and successful stop on the ensuing drive, the Panthers marched downfield to score the go-ahead touchdown on a pass from Lutfiyya to wide receiver KYle Quinnette. Instead of heading straight into the end zone, Quinnette took the opportunity to pulverize the Rangers safety at the goal line, scoring the Pantthers' second touchdown in dramatic fashion. The 200 spectators were on their feet in ovation for the Panthers, whose struggles on offense seemed to finally give way to a legitimate multi-headed monster in the fourth quarter.
"We've got a lot of young guys out here who weren't used to the speed of the college game, they had a lot of jitters," Lutfiyya said about the sputtering offense in the first half. "We decided to move me back into the shotgun in the second half so I could get some looks without five hands in my face."
Not forgotten should be Jonathan Reneau, the tailback who had well over 25 touches in the game and sparked the winning touchdown drive with a pair of first down gains.
Once the Panthers had the lead they didn't give it up. Marching down the field after they gave up the go-ahead touchdown, the Rangers were in Milwaukee territory and looked like they were going to take it back. However, their quarterback was intercepted by Cody Winkler, and the Panthers took over with 4:36 left in the game.
"We had our nickel coverage in, and our main thing was we knew they were gonna go long, so you know they're not going to run and you just need to keep your head on a swivel and watch the quarterback," Winkler said of the play with his interception. "I was fortunate enough to be over there."
It looked as though Milwaukee could kill the clock, but the Rangers' stout defense held Reneau in check and they had one last chance. They coughed it up again, this time on an interception by Nate Heard, and the victory was sealed.
The lone touchdown by Parkside came after a long return on an interception of Lutfiyya. They missed the extra point and came through with a field goal in the third quarter.
Milwaukee's defense was extremely strong. Aside from the interceptions by Heard and Winkler, the defensive line was led by senior end Jack Gehringer, who racked up 2 1/2 sacks on the night.
"We haven't been able to get out and really practice because we have a lot of guys with different schedules, so really the first half was almost like a scrimmage for us," head coach Dave Mogensen said afterward. "We knew it was going to be a little rough, but not this rough. We figured the best way to beat them would be to spread the defense out by going five wide."
On the first touchdown, Lutfiyya hit the tight end up the seam for the score. "For Ian, it was all about letting him settle down and play. This is the first time he's played as a quarterback, so we knew there was going to be a learning curve with that," said Mogensen.
The Panthers take the week off this week and then play Concordia in the second game. It looks like it might be a home game, because Concordia's willing to give Milwaukee the home field, it will just take some time to work out. We'll let you know on PantherU when the game is set.
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