Paulding Panthers tames the Delphos Jefferson Wildcats 56-25

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David Burnworth | September 3, 2023

Saturday night my travels took me to Stadium Park for the first time in Delphos, Ohio to watch the Paulding Panthers battle Jefferson. Jefferson, a young team came in with a 0-2 record, with losses to crosstown Rival St. Johns and Defiance Ayersville, while Paulding came in with a 1-1 record. They shut out Swanton 36-0 in the opener and then they dropped a 35-8 decision to Spencerville.

Paulding set the tone in this one when Jessee Shaffer galloped to a big 30-yard run. At the 8:36 mark of the quarter Jacob Fife found Blake Rhonehouse for a 7-yard score. Fife found Caleb Larson to make this an 8-0 game. Paulding would get two nice defensive plays before the quarter came to a conclusion. First, Jack Woods got to Karder Agner for a short loss, and then Carter Evans sacked Luke Rode for a loss of three.

Just nine seconds into the second quarter this became a 16-0 game when Fife found hard-running Kobe Foor for a 36-yard touchdown followed by another two-point conversion pass from Fife to Larson. The Panthers defense made quick work of the Jefferson offensive largely due to a sack by Carter Evans.

Once the Panthers offense came back on the field they used a 42-yard pass by Fife to Rhonehouse to set up a 2-yard run by the powerful Foor. A fife to Rhonehouse two-point conversion gave us the 24-0 score. Paulding was on the move again with Fife hitting Larson for 17 yards and then it was a 27-yard pass to Rhonehouse but a pick in the endzone by Rode in the endzone stopped the drive.

Later in the quarter, Jefferson finally got on the scoreboard with Boston Reynolds taking it in from 3 yards out to make this a 24-6 game. sixty-one seconds this was a 32-6 game with Fife throwing a 68-yard touchdown pass to Rhonehouse with Foor converting the two-point conversion.

On the ensuing kickoff, Tyler Wilkins to the kick 68 yards to the house giving us a 32-12 score. My first-half stats had Paulding with 270 yards on 35 plays, with Jefferson having run 23 plays for 4 total yards.

Jefferson would make this an interesting game when Rode scampered 21 yards for a score followed by a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff by Paulding and the Panthers coming out of the pile with the ball. Agner followed the fumble recovery up with a 9-yard touchdown with Braxton Hurles making good on his PAT giving us a 32-25 contest.

Foor scored on a 1-yard run and then converted the two-point conversion making this a 40-25 game entering the final stanza. Foor had a catch of 18-yards to set up a 2-yard touchdown run from Fife to make this a 48-25 game as the two-point conversion was again successful on a Foor run.

Dillon Shough-Germann got to ball carrier on third and long to force a punt by the Wildcats, with 8;47 left in the game. A Larson 56-yard touchdown run ended and another two-point conversion run from Foor was the last scoring in the game giving us a 56-25 final score.

Dean Trentman would show Jefferson had not quit when he ran for 44 yards for the last big play in the game.

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