Daviess County used 21 unanswered in the second half and a strong running game to top Madisonville-North Hopkins on the road 49-22.
Madisonville-North Hopkins put some pressure on the Panthers early, as they scored on their very first drive to make it a 7-0 game with 9:02 left in the first quarter.
However, Daviess County responded swiftly, as senior quarterback Joe Humphreys ran one 59 yards to the house and then followed it up with a nice run on the two-point conversion. This gave the Panthers momentum, taking an 8-7 lead with 8:44 left in the first quarter.
The Maroons weren’t going to roll over, responding on the ensuing drive to take a 14-8 lead thanks to a rushing touchdown with 5:49 left in the first quarter.
Madisonville-North Hopkins took the lead into the second quarter and held onto it until Daviess County scored twice right before the half.
Humphreys connected with junior Cole Burch for a six-yard touchdown and then ran it in for the two-point conversion to take a 16-14 lead with 2:37 left in the first half.
Daviess County then pulled some trickery looking to create some separation going into the locker room, recovering an onside kick.
It was another massive run from Humphreys that gave the Panthers the lead, as a 60-yard run made it 22-14 with 2:14 left in the first half.
Just when it seemed like the Maroons were falling behind, they scored 11 seconds later thanks to an 89-yard touchdown pass. They completed the two-point conversion right after, knotting things up at 22-22 with 2:03 left in the first half.
However, Daviess County wasn’t done scoring. Senior Carter Hamilton ran the kickoff back to the six-yard line and Humphreys ran it in for the touchdown shortly after. The extra point was no good, but Humphreys’ third rushing touchdown gave the Panthers a 28-22 lead going into halftime.
Shortly into the second half Humphreys earned another rushing touchdown, this time going three yards.
With their kicker Sean Higgs out playing for the boys soccer team, Daviess County tried another two-point conversion but failed. However, this gave them the first double digit lead of the game at 34-22.
Humphreys did throw for two touchdowns and 106 yards despite throwing two interceptions, but his ability to break out for big runs was a key cog in the Daviess County offense all night long.
Humphreys grabbed four rushing touchdowns on the night to go along with 151 rushing yards on only five carries.
Brannon said tonight seemed to be the first time Humphreys was 100% healthy after dealing with a hamstring issue and it showed, making him the dual threat the Panthers know he can be going forward.
“That’s going to be big for us moving forward, to be able to have him be a true dual threat which he’s kind of known for… ” Brannon said. “For us to be able to kind of showcase that, it’s going to put defenses in a bind as we move forward. Going into district play now, they’ve gotta defend Joe both running and throwing.”
Senior Gunnar Evans helped the Panthers extend their lead right before the third quarter came to a close, using a 35-yard rushing touchdown and a two-point conversion to make it a 42-22 game.
Evans had a solid night on the ground as well, turning 13 carries into 121 yards to go along with his lone rushing touchdown.
Once Daviess County got going in the second half, the levees broke and they never stopped scoring, carrying that momentum into the fourth quarter.
Minutes into the final quarter of play Humphreys connected with junior Decker Renfrow with a 28-yard touchdown pass to take a 49-22 lead with 9:56 left to play.
This would be the proverbial dagger, as the game was delayed minutes later due to lightning before ultimately being called. This had the Panthers leaving the field with a 49-22 road win.
While Daviess County obviously thrive offensively, defensively they held the Maroons scoreless in the second half.
Brannon said once the Panthers started winning the field positions battle made them fight to earn a lot of their yardage the defense was able to settle in.
“We started kicking it deep and pinning them deep and making them have to drive,” Brannon said. “I’m not sure that they ever crossed the 50-yard line in the second half. They showed out again. Defensively we’ve harped on that all year and they’ve been able to answer the challenges every week.”
Brannon said they do have to clean up a few things going into next week, but that there are plenty of positives in a nice road win.
“We gotta clean up our penalties for sure,” Brannon said. “We’ve got to play better up front on the offensive line. That’s something that we can challenge our guys as we move forward and like I said, I’m proud of the way they answered in the second half. We just have to build onto that. [We] just gotta keep doing what we’re doing. We protected the ball well tonight [too].”
Daviess County moves to 4-1 overall on the season and will look to extend its winning streak to three games when they host Marshall County at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24.
