The Daviess County Panthers came into Reid Stadium Friday riding high after a dominant victory over Marshall County a week ago but the Mustangs of McCracken County had other plans.
The Mustangs led wire-to-wire as they took down Daviess County 56-22 to move to 4-0 on the year while the Panthers fall to 2-2 and 1-1 in district play.
DC coach Matt Brannon said McCracken County came out with authority from the opening drive.
“I think physically we didn’t match their play tonight,” he said. “Offensive line wore us down. I think the two platoon units that they rolled out, it wore on us. It’s a methodical offense. They just chew you up and take a little bit at a time, little yards at a time. You try to adjust to one thing, they’re hitting outside then all of a sudden, they hit you inside and bust a long one.”
McCracken’s Hunter Bradley scored the first two touchdowns of the game and didn’t look like he was feeling any of the effects of his leg injury that kept him out of the end of 2019.
Bradley finished with five rushing touchdowns in the game, his longest coming on an 80-yard run in the third quarter.
“Him coming off of the injury, you watch on film and you think maybe he’s lost a step slower but I’m watching Parker Crews who I know can run and he’s getting outran,” Brannon said.
Daviess County’s first touchdown of the game came when it was trailing 16-0 as junior quarterback Joe Humphreys found daylight and scored on a 44-yard run.
It would take two more Mustang touchdowns before Humphreys found the endzone again on a 1-yard run with 15.2 left in the second to make it 31-15 McCracken at the break.
Daviess County’s final touchdown came late in the third when Humphreys found freshman Luke Floyd for the score to give Floyd his second touchdown grab in two games.
Humphreys finished with three total touchdowns but didn’t produce the numbers he had in the Panthers’ last two games.
Brannon said he’s still got all the confidence in the world in Humphreys.
“I think once we settled in and figured out the protections, he was a little antsy to leave the pocket but there were some throws there that he missed,” Brannon said. “He’s the type of kid that’ll move on. He won’t let that bother him. He’ll watch film and figure out what he needs to do. Talk about leadership, that’s the type of kid he is.”
McCracken County had four touchdowns each half as they threw everything plus the kitchen sink at the Panther defense.
Brannon said he expected the Mustang offense to do what they did.
“It’s the same look that we’ve seen,” he said. “It changes year to year but a lot of multiple formations. Typically, they’ve got a couple of guys that you can spread out, and not only can they hammer it inside but they’ve got some edge speed. That’s one part of it that they didn’t have if there’s anything that they didn’t have. We weren’t surprised with anything we saw, just disappointed in the way we tried to defend it.”
The Panthers’ opponent next week is still in the air as they’re scheduled to take on Allen County-Scottsville but with Allen County currently in red for its COVID-19 cases, that could change.
Brannon said the decision will be made by early next week.
Whoever they play, Brannon said they’ll continue to keep working as hard as they can.
“It’s disheartening because we know we have the potential to play well,” he said. “We practice well, we prepared well. We’re just going to have to bounce back … I told them you’re faced with adversity, you have two options, which road are you going to choose and I think we’ll choose the other one.”
McCracken County 56, Daviess County 22
MCHS (4-0) 16 15 12 13–56
DCHS (2-2) 7 8 7 0–22
Scoring plays
First Quarter
9:02: (MC) Hunter Bradley 1-yard run (Two-point good) 8-0
3:25: (MC) Bradley 54-yard run (Two-point good) 16-0
1:22: (DC) Joe Humphreys 44-yard run (PAT good) 16-7
Second quarter
9:18: (MC) Bradley 41-yard run (PAT good) 23-7
4:17: (MC) Pryor Lamb 3-yard pass to Carter Roland (Two-point good) 31-7
15.2: (DC) Humphreys 1-yard run (Two-point good) 31-15
Third quarter
7:22: (MC) Bradley 80-yard run (Two-point no good) 37-15
4:22: (MC) Jeremiah Hughes 1-yard run (PAT no good) 43-15
1:27: (DC) Humphreys 17-yard pass to Luke Floyd (PAT good) 43-22
Fourth quarter
11:55: (MC) Bradley 2-yard run (PAT good) 50-22
7:38 (MC) Lamb 3-yard pass to Nick Masek (Two-point no good) 56-22
