In the week leading up to their road game at St. Paul, Jordan coach Time Wedlow stressed to his team that he wanted them to play their style of football and not the Swordsmen.
Unfortunately, St. Paul dictated every aspect of the contest on Friday, beating the Panthers 42-9 behind stellar defensive play and three touchdowns from senior quarterback Isaiah Dunn.
“We beat ourselves,” Wedlow said. “We had a terrible night and made too many mistakes. We can’t be like this in the Moore League. We are supposed to be a better team before league.”
The Panthers were held to under 100 total yards on offense and had four turnovers, including a botched snap that resulted in a fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown.
“We played their style of ball,” Wedlow said. “They took the momentum out of us.”
After the teams exchanged turnovers to start the game, Dunn found senior wide receiver Sahir Gomez for 18 yards and a touchdown to give St. Paul a 6-0 lead with 5:02 remaining in the first quarter.
Dunn hit senior wide receiver Jordan Williams for a 18-yard pass in the right corner of the end zone and St. Paul (3-0) led 12-0 after one.
The second quarter is where the game got away from the Panthers (2-2) as they couldn’t muster anything on offense (only one first down on a Damian Henderson run) and sophomore running back Christian Melendez had two touchdown runs for St. Paul.
Dunn and Gomez connected for 35 yards late in the half and St. Paul led 35-0 at half.
Despite trailing by 42 and with the running clock going, the Panthers showed life in the fourth quarter with an energetic sideline.
Panthers junior quarterback Jacob Hernandez threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Henderson late in the fourth.
“We lit a fire and didn’t quit and just kept playing,” Wedlow said. “We were just too flat tonight.”
Jordan is at home against Millikan next Friday.
