Streak snappers

One rematch down, another to go.

The Creston/Orient-Macksburg Panthers captured their first playoff victory since 2003 with a quick start fueling a 31-7 win over Greene County (Jefferson) Wednesday night at Panther Field. The Panthers took a 14-0 lead in the first seven minutes and led 17-0 after one quarter as Conner Pals kicked a 42-yard field goal.

The Panthers defeated Greene County in a non-district game earlier this season, 23-7.

Creston/O-M (8-2) opened the season at home Aug. 29 with a 27-17 victory over Norwalk.

The Warriors return to Panther Field Monday in a second-round game at 7 p.m, Monday after outscoring Bondurant-Farrar Wednesday, 38-32. Norwalk, which placed third in District 7, improved to 6-4 with the playoff win.

Creston/O-M is now 6-13 all-time in playoff competition, with all of the victories in first-round games. Wednesday’s victory ended a streak of six consecutive postseason losses.

That’s not lost on this group of 2014 Panthers, who are building their own legacy.

“It feels good to be a Panther right now,” said senior McClain Haines, who snatched the ball away from Ram ball carrier Jordan Challen on a second-half run for one of two Greene County turnovers.

“I think we can go far, honestly,” said Haines, who spelled starter Alex Nielsen at quarterback in the fourth quarter when Nielsen rolled an ankle.

In middle school, Haines was the ‘A’ team quarterback and Nielsen was the ‘B’ team quarterback. In high school, Haines moved to receiver, and Nielsen threw to historic heights.

With 248 yards Monday on 16-of-24 passing, Nielsen now has 2,131 yards passing this season, surpassing the previous program record of 2,014 yards by G.G. Harris in 2005.

“It’s nice, but we just have to take it one game at a time now and not worry about that,” Nielsen said. “It’s nice to have four or five good receivers like we have to make a play. Our line was great. I felt like I had time to sit back and make an accurate throw.”

Early in the game, offensive coordinator Ryan McKim — an offensive lineman on the last Panther team to win a playoff game — dialed up some deception. Tailback Chase Shiltz took the handoff, then turned and pitched back to Nielsen.

The flea-flicker worked to perfection, as receiver Christian Groumoutis was running free behind the Ram secondary. He caught the pass for a 44-yard gain, setting up a 1-yard quarterback sneak touchdown by Nielsen.

Shiltz scored the other three Panther touchdowns on runs of 8, 5 and 5 yards, finding room on direct snap “wildcat” formation plays in the team’s short-yardage power running scheme.

“The guys block straight ahead and I’m supposed to read the opening either direction,” Shiltz said. “The guys up front were doing a great job.”

Shiltz finished with 134 yards rushing on 25 carries.

Neither team scored in the second quarter, and Ram running back Dylan Hamilton, who rushed for 118 yards, scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter to cut the gap to 17-7.

Shots downfield

Creston/O-M answered quickly. On third-and-nine, Nielsen passed deep to Bryce Briley on a go route for a 52-yard gain to the Ram 5-yard line. Shiltz carried into the end zone on the next play to make it 24-7 on Pals’ extra-point kick.

Briley had broken free despite straining both groin muscles earlier on a kick return.

“I just landed awkward and the kid landed on me and I did the splits,” Briley said. “I feel it when the play is over. I don’t think about it when I’m running.”

Then the defense made a big play near the end of the third quarter.

A pass caromed off the hands of a Greene County receiver low into the grasp of Panther free safety Connor Kinkade, who returned it more than 20 yards to his own 46-yard line.

On the very next play, Nielsen passed deep to Groumoutis for a 37-yard pickup to the Greene County 17. Three plays later, just as the fourth quarter was getting underway, Shiltz scored from 5 yards to make it 31-7.

On the next series Challen burst 28 yards on the first play, and was ending another gain near his own sideline when Haines snatched the ball from his grasp for a fumble recovery.

With 6:00 left Nielsen left with the sprained ankle, but the Panthers’ rushing attack was rolling and went from their own 45 to the Ram 1-yard line, where Morrison directed them to take a knee and run out the final seconds, rather than add another score.

“We did some really good things tonight against a good football team,” Morrison said. “Now we just need to get kids healthy and have them as fresh as possible to come back on Monday. In the second half they exposed us on a couple of things, but it’s things that can be fixed when we look at the tape. We mixed some fronts up against them and checked into a couple different coverages. They are really good up front and we wanted to show them different looks.”

Defensive pressure

On the other side of the ball, Creston/O-M’s defense had 11 tackles for losses — including three quarterback sacks. Quarterback Daric Whipple, a running and passing threat, was held to negative yardage.

“They look huge compared to us, because we don’t have a ton of big, burly guys,” Kadon Hulett said, “but I just think it was our heart. Against Winterset and DC-G we got off to slow starts, and we didn’t want to do that tonight.”

Hulett had four tackles for 27 yards in losses while getting 10 total tackles, matching linebacker Alex Tamerius.

“We were getting good pressure on the quarterback and they were having some miscommunication on the line, which helped us out,” said defensive end Tayler Pettit. “We knew their quarterback was an athlete, so we made it a point to contain him.”

The win was special to Tamerius, who missed his junior season for one of two knee surgeries he’s had in the past year and a half.

“Man, it feels amazing,” Tamerius said. “It feels great to break something, especially with some of those other great teams that have played. It’s great to be one of the best teams to go through here.”

Pals was also all smiles afterward, thinking he’d played his last game at Panther Field in a playoff victory. Now he has the chance to duplicate that feeling Monday night.

The Panthers are 0-5 in second-round games, with four of those losses to Harlan.

“We’re not done yet,” Pals said. “We’re not close to being satisfied.”

“I’m pumped,” Shiltz added. “We really want that next one.”