Daviess County bounced back from its loss to Owensboro in commanding fashion as the Panthers’ offense was unstoppable Friday in Marshall County.
The Panthers used a running clock in the game to take down the Marshals 56-6 to move to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 in district play.
DC took no time getting on the board as junior quarterback Joe Humphreys found junior wide receiver Max Dees on the first play of the game for a 36-yard gain.
Humphreys connected with Dees again on a screen play and broke free to the endzone after a massive block from senior lineman CJ Snyder.
The 32-yard pass completion had the Marshals trailing 7-0 within the first two minutes of play.
The Panthers continued to put pressure on Marshall County early on, blocking a punt from the Marshals on their first drive of the game.
Shortly after, Humphreys hit sophomore wide receiver Decker Renfrow downfield for a 40-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 8:59 left in the first quarter.
Marshall County showed signs of life on their next drive, stringing together solid runs courtesy of senior running back Garrett Parker.
However, the Panthers adapted and forced the Marshals to turn the ball over on downs and capitalized.
Humphreys led Daviess County downfield and handed it off to sophomore running back Bryson Parm for a 7-yard touchdown. This put the Panthers out in front with a 21-0 lead with 2:55 left in the quarter.
Daviess County wasn’t done scoring in the first as another screen play gave Parm some room, and he broke multiple tackles en route to a 20-yard touchdown and a 28-0 lead going into the second quarter.
The Marshals kept fighting and were able to put up some points to start the second quarter as Parker punched it in at the 1-yard line.
The extra point was no good, so Marshall County found themselves trailing 28-6.
The Panthers quickly responded, as Humphreys found freshman receiver Luke Floyd alone on an island and threw a bomb for a 60-yard touchdown and the first-ever varsity touchdown for Floyd.
On its next drive, Daviess County had three straight fourth-down conversions and Humphreys found Renfrow for the second time.
After the extra point, the Panthers took a commanding 42-6 lead into the locker room.
Daviess County continued to put on an offensive showcase in the third quarter, as Humphreys took a keeper and broke a tackle en route to a 61-yard touchdown and a 48-6 lead with 6:56 left in the third quarter.
Panther Coach Matt Brannon said he’s pleased with the progression of Humphreys, who has turned himself into a legitimate dual-threat and said that extra film time this week really helped him succeed.
“He was prepared,” Brannon said. “He knew what was going to be there and the calls that we made in terms of defensively making the reads, and he continues to excel as a runner for us, so it’s just nice to have a little one-two punch in the backfield with the run game like that.”
After forcing and recovering a fumble to go into the fourth quarter, sophomore quarterback Jack Ball took over for the Panthers and went 8 yards for the touchdown.
Now leading 56-6, it was all Daviess County needed to move to 2-1 overall before returning home next week.
“We had to take our first step,” Brannon said. “We keep talking about playing like a championship-caliber program and we want to win a district championship, so in order for you to do that you have to win the first district game … It was a nice win for us.”
Daviess County will take on 3-0 McCracken County Friday at DC.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Brannon said. “I know that they’re good. Physically up front they’re good. I think that’s one of our strong points so we’ll have to match that. They’ve got some good tackles that we’ll have to take advantage of. Just being physical. We have the advantage of playing at home, I think that’s going to be big for us. It’s just again we gotta focus on us each day showing up, preparing and making sure that we’re ready for our next opponent.”
Daviess County 56, Marshall County 6
DC (2-1) 28 14 7–56
MC (0-2) 0 6 0 0–6
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
(DC) Joe Humphreys 32-yard pass to Max Dees (PAT good) 7-0
(DC) Humphreys 40-yard pass to Decker Renfrow (PAT good) 14-0
(DC) Bryson Parm 7-yard run (PAT good) 21-0
(DC) Humphreys 20-yard pass to Parm (PAT good) 28-0
Second Quarter
(MC) Garrett Parker 1-yard run (PAT no good) 28-6
(DC) Humphreys 60-yard pass to Luke Floyd (PAT good) 35-6
(DC) Humphreys 1-yard pass to Renfrow (PAT good) 42-6
Third Quarter
(DC) Humphreys 61-yard run (PAT good) 49-6
Fourth Quarter
(DC) Jack Ball 8-yard run (PAT good) 56-6
