PLAYING THE BEST

Class 2A, DII’s top-ranked Mart Panthers dominate in Meridian, Jackets travel to Wortham Friday in District 10-2A, DII competition

MERIDIAN – Entering the game as the Class 2A, Division II’s top-ranked team in the state, the perennial powerhouse Mart Panthers have looked primed for run at another state championship. A road trip to Meridian only proved to be one more step in the right direction.

Opening District 10-2A, DII competition with a dominating performance, the Panthers lit up the scoreboard for a 67-0 victory over the outmatched and winless Meridian Yellow Jackets last Friday night at Jacket Stadium.

Mart junior quarterback Jonah Ross passed for 239 yards and five touchdowns while seven different Panthers found their way into the end zone. Senior receivers Averion Johnson and Brandon Lundy hauled in two scoring strikes apiece against the smallest 11-man football team in the state.

“Mart is as good as advertised,” Meridian head coach Jim Kerbow said. “However, I don’t feel that we played to our potential. We still are seeing a lot of growing pains.”

Posting their second shutout of the season, the Panthers (1-0 in district, 5-0 overall) completely shut down the Meridian offensive attack, limiting the Jackets to 18 yards of total offense and forcing two turnovers. Mart junior Monte Swaner returned the fumble recovery 30 yards for a score.

“Offensively, we struggled moving the ball on the Panthers most of the night,” Kerbow said. Junior John Wyatt broke off the longest gain of the game for Meridian with a 16-yard run, finishing with 33 yards rushing on five carries.

The Mart defense proved the offensive unit with good field position all night as Panthers needed only 370 yards of total offense to score eight touchdowns. Defensively, freshman Jesse Scott led the Jackets with eight tackles, followed by senior Brady Taylor and sophomore CJ Gentry with five each.

“Mart is very explosive and physical on offense,” Kerbow said. “We struggled with their speed between the tackles, on the perimeter, and in the air.”

This week, the Jackets (0-1, 0-5) will travel to Wortham to take on Bulldogs (1-0, 4-1), who have emerged as one of the teams to beat in district along with top-ranked Mart. Wortham rolled to a dominating 69-6 victory in their district opener over the Hubbard Jaguars.

“Wortham is very physical and they have some team speed,” Kerbow said. “This will present issues up front on both sides of the ball. However, we will have a couple new additions this week that should help us in some key positions.”