GULFPORT – There wasn’t much Gulfport could do to stop the Petal Panthers’ rushing attack Friday night. In a dominant 34-0 win over the Admirals, the Panthers totaled 277 rushing yards on 54 carries, scoring all five touchdowns on the ground.
Petal junior Micah McGowan led the way with 108 yards and a touchdown on 24 attempts, and junior Rashad Handford added 101 yards and two scores on 14 carries. Even Petal quarterback DeCarlos Nicholson rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown on 13 tries.
“I love it,” McGowan said of splitting time with Handford. “It’s good to have another good running back with me.”
McGowan handled the bulk of the carries, and he moved piles all night when he didn’t break free for long runs. The junior said the Week 2 loss to Gulfport gave his team motivation during the week of practice, too.
“We had a lot of (confidence),” he said. “We’ve been playing good the last few weeks. We had a great week of practice, and we talked a lot about redemption.”
Petal was able to move the ball from the start, but Petal coach Marcus Boyles and his coaches made an adjustment that gave the Panthers even more of an edge. They began the game trying to run to the outside, but switched to an inside zone read option play.
It worked effectively, too. Twice Petal had 60-plus-yard drives of nothing but run plays that led to touchdowns. With a 6-0 lead, Petal needed eight plays to travel 63 yards to make it a 13-0 game. Then in the third quarter, the Panthers went 80 yards on 15 plays, and also drained eight minutes of game clock, to take a 27-0 lead.
Both drives featured nearly the same play over and over again, and the Petal offensive line made holes for the ball carriers.
“It was the same thing,” Boyles said of the offensive play calling. “We thought we could run the football on them, we really did. We started the game trying to run a little outside zone, and that wasn’t really working. Our offensive line coach said, ‘Hey, let’s run right at them.’ We started running right at them and they had trouble stopping it.”
McGowan and Handford were the biggest beneficiaries of the inside zone. On the first long touchdown drive, McGowan ripped off runs of 10, 7 and 6 yards to gain 28 yards on four carries, while Handford had two of the final three rushing attempts, capping the drive off with a 12-yard score on third-and-4 from the 12-yard line.
On the second long scoring possession, McGowan carried the ball on the first five plays to move the ball 38 yards, then Handford spelled him for 20 yards on three carries before McGowan scored from the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal.
That’s how it worked all night. McGowan would receive a couple of carries, then Handford got his share. The revolving door in the backfield kept the rushing attack ready to go all night.
“We came out good, we finished and we now have to come back to work Monday,” Handford said. “(Gulfport) couldn’t stop us, so coach said we were going to keep pounding that ball.”
After Petal punted on its opening possession, but recovered a fumble on a muffed punt, Handford made his presence known quickly. He took the ball 31 yards on three plays to score the first touchdown of the game.
That set the stage for the rest of the game, too.
“It was live,” Handford said when he returned to the sideline after the touchdown. “They were just jumping up and down screaming for us, so we had to finish.”
Leading 27-0, even senior J’Lin Jones got in on the action. After the two juniors got the ball to the Gulfport 10-yard line, Jones gained 7 yards on three rushes to score the game’s final touchdown. When McGowan came off the field for Jones, McGowan gave his teammate a pat on the back before returning to the sideline.
