10/21/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
PINCKNEYVILLE - For the Pinckneyville Panthers' football program, this season had more 'downs' than it did 'ups'.

However one of the standouts for the campaign showed up with a big performance on his teams' Senior Night against visiting Massac County.

Chase Schneider has been the consistent factor for the Panthers' limited success this season and he did something that no other Panther player had ever done before this season.

The 6-0, 210 senior running back became the first player in the program's history to rush for over 1,000-yards in a season.

He ran over, past and through the Patriots' defense 35-times for 238-yards and four touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a season ending 32-13 victory.

His finally tally for the campaign is 1,145-yards on the ground for a 'ground and pound' offense for head coach Ryan Lott.

Schneider scored on runs of 7, 56, 16 and 2 yards in the victory.

“I think he (Schneider) does better as the game goes on. He just doesn't wear down. I think he enjoys it almost,” said Coach Lott about the amount of carries and hits he has in a game.

Although there is no playoffs for the Panthers, this first year coach at the school is looking forward to the future for his program.

“It's just great to be able to send seniors out with a victory like that,” said Coach Lott. “They've worked so hard this season and we've gone through so much adversity and injuries almost on a weekly basis. It's just phenomenal to send them out on a win. Hopefully that will springboard us to the off-season and into next year.”

Sophomore running back Marshawn Fisher was the outside threat for the Panthers on Friday night with 12-carries for 87-yards.

Junior quarterback Jase Lee didn't have to worry about throwing the ball often as he only attempted two passes.

One was a 28-yard 'pitch and catch' to junior Talan Benbrook while the other toss resulted in a pass interference penalty on Massac County.

Lineman Adam Bochantin also got on the scoreboard as the 6-2, 250 senior got a rare chance to shine offensively.

Bochantin scored the final TD of the season for the Panthers on a two-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Jason Roper saw his Massac County club fall for the seventh consecutive week, ending the season 2-7.

Senior quarterback Brody Smallman was just 8-of-19 passing for 98-yards.

However his touchdown pass in the second quarter to Hunter Box gave the Patriots a brief 7-6 lead.

Against the Pinckneyville defense Coach Roper's offense struggled for most of the game.

Five different Patriot runners produced just 80-yards on 22-runs.

Senior Tyrus Riley led Massac County with 10-attempts for 38-yards.

Riley scored the second Patriots TD in the final minutes.

Box caught three passes for 62-yards to led the receiving.

Sophomore Kris Garnett caught four passes from Smallman for an additional 34-yards for Massac County.

The defensive side of the field is where Coach Roper's club struggled, especially trying to stop Schneider.

“He (Schneider) is a fantastic player. He's a senior for them and I think he needed 'X-number' of yards to get to 1,000 and he was able to do that tonight. Give them (Pinckneyville) credit. Coach Lott has done a nice job coming in here in his first year. He's done a good job of putting people in the right positions in that offense,” said Coach Roper. “We need some guys in the weight room this off-season to get stronger, get bigger and more physical and I think we'll do that. But right now we struggled stopping the run all year.”

The Panthers scored on their first trip down the field with Schneider 'doing his thing'.

Six of the eight plays on a 63-yard scoring drive were Schneider carries.

Schneider scored his first TD on a seven-yard run up the middle.

Although the PAT kick by Lee was blocked, Pinckneyville was on the board first at 6-0 with 5:31 remaining in the first quarter.

Defensively there were some bright spots for Massac County.

Junior lineman Trae Foulks made big plays in sacking Lee twice.

Once for six-yard loss on third down, which forced a Panthers' punt.

His second sack helped set up the Patriots first score.

He managed to bring Lee down for a third-down sack, this time a seven-yard loss pushed the Panthers back to their own 17.

Pinckneyville senior Kellen Scott's punt ended up with Massac with starting their scoring drive on the Panthers' 44.

Runs by Riley got the ball to the Panthers' 30.

After an incompletion by Smallman, the Patriots faced a fourth-and-five

The senior quarterback scrambled to his right and then cut back to his left to avoid the Panthers' pass rush.

He then spotted Box open over the middle.

His pass found the mark as Box turned and sprinted the remaining 15-yards of the 30-yard TD strike.

Junior kicker Clara Elliott booted the PAT as the Patriots led 7-6 with 6:11 left before halftime.

(CONTINUED)
This score served as sort of a 'wake-up call' for the hosts.

Coach Lott's lot took just over two-minutes to take the lead back for good.

In perhaps the biggest play of the game, Schneider came up with a long run for a back-breaking score.

Three straight runs by the senior netted just nine-yards.

So on fourth down, who else would Coach Lott want to carry the ball.

Everyone in attendance knew who was going to get the ball.

Schneider broke through up the middle of the Patriots' defense, then broke a tackle in the open field as he raced 56-yards for a touchdown.

Although the two-point run by Fisher failed, Pinckneyville had flipped the script to lead 12-7.

A problem late in the half caused by the game clock being stopped in the final seconds allowed Pinckneyville to score a third first half touchdown with just :02 left.

The Panthers were driving down the field with under a minute left and with no timeouts remaining.

The Lee to Benbrook pass got the ball to the Massac County five-yard line with the clock running.

Lee lined up to run a play and unexpectedly took a knee instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock.

However after an officials' whistle blew the play dead, the clock stopped when is shouldn't have, which gave the Panthers time to set up another play before the officials noticed and signaled the scoreboard operator to start the clock.

A quick pitch to Fisher, who went out of bounds at the Patriots' two-yard line, stopped the clock at :06 left.

Again, everyone in the stands knew who was going to get the ball on the next play.

Schneider plowed his way into the endzone with :02 left in the half.

This time Lee split the uprights on the PAT as the Panthers took a 19-7 halftime lead.

The Panthers got the ball to start the second half and kept the ball for nearly the whole third quarter.

In a drive that took 8:31 in game-clock, Coach Lott's team went 65-yards in 13-plays.

The Panthers converted two additional fourth-and-one's with Schneider again doing the damage.

Schneider ran for 54 of the 65-yards on the drive and he scored on a 16-yard blast up the middle.

Another Lee PAT with 3:39 left in the third quarter pushed the advantage to 26-7.

“We just knew what we had to do to close the game out. That's what we wanted to do, we didn't want them to have the ball (in the second half) and that is how we have been this season when we were successful at times we hold the ball and move it,” said Coach Lott. “It's kind of fun when you move the ball at will and they (opponents) know what is coming and they still can't stop it.”

Massac managed a pair of first downs on it's next possession but they turned it back over to the Panthers on the final play of the quarter.

The Patriots reached the Pinckneyville 27 before a fourth down scramble by Smallman came up short of the first down.

A dead ball penalty against Massac set the Panthers up at their own 32.

Pinckneyville ran off 6:32 off of the clock in going 68-yards on 11-plays.

Schneider 'chewed up' 55 of the yards with Fisher running for 11-yards on one play to get the ball the Massac 18.

Two carries by Schneider set up Bochantin for his two-yard TD run with 5:25 left.

Although the PAT failed, the Panthers had the game 'in the bag' at 32-7.

“It's just great to be able to send seniors out with a victory like that,” said Coach Lott. “They've worked so hard this season and we've gone through so much adversity and injuries almost on a weekly basis. It's just phenomenal to send them out on a win. Hopefully that will springboard us to the off-season and into next year.”

To Coach Roper's kids' credit, they came down and put up some final points in their final game of the fall.

It took 11-plays and another long pass from Smallman to Box to get to the Panthers' two.

Riley finished the scoring with a two-yard touchdown with 1:53 left.

A failed PAT run made the final score 32-13.

Unofficially the yardage totals (324-178) and first down totals (18-9) favored the hosts.

The Panthers also converted all three of their fourth down attempts in the season ending victory and a record breaking night for Schneider.

“At the end of the day we struggled against the run the entire season. A lot of that is that we're young and inexperienced on defense. Next year most of these kids on defense will be seniors,” said Coach Roper. “We feel like we're going to be better. This year we were learning and we weren't physical. A kid like him (Schneider) who is 6-1 and 210 pounds is going to be a handful for us and he was tonight.