In the first game under Benny Palmer, the Park Hill South football team (1-0) erased an early deficit to rally towards a 34-17 home victory over Rock Bridge (0-1) on August 26.
The Bruins drew first blood with a touchdown and field goal in the opening period, but Darrien Jones started his impressive senior debut with a 14-yard rushing touchdown to cap off a four-play drive with 2:22 left in the first quarter. Park Hill South took its first lead with 8:30 left in the first half when Jordan Hilsinger picked off a deflected pass at the 22-yard line and took it the distance to put the Panthers up 13-10.
“We definitely showed that we got three starters back from last year’s team,” Park Hill South head football coach Benny Palmer said. “They were hobbling around when they were lining up and I was like come on, let’s focus, but once they settled down and the guys got in rhythm, they started on their path. We were able to push those kids around and call somebody home.”
Park Hill South new head coach Benny Palmer helped lead the Panthers to a 34-17 win over Rock Bridge on August 26.
Jones ignited a strong Park Hill South second half with a four-yard rushing touchdown early in the third period, then broke some tackles en route to running 80 yards for another score with 11:05 left in the contest. The Panthers’ lead was pushed to 27-17 after Jones found his way into the end zone for the third time of the night.
“We were able to line up and handball DJ Jones and let him come downhill, and let him set the tone; and the big boys up front cause the holes to cause the seams, and it just started getting clean. Once we feel that rhythm, we’re in pretty good shape,” Palmer said.
Right when it looked like Park Hill South was going to push the lead to three possessions, first year starting quarterback Drew Paulakovich threw an interception in the end zone with 7:49 on the clock. On the Bruins’ first play after regaining possession, Hilsinger forced a fumble and Dylan Love came up with the recovery.
“The defense came down big time; we had a bunch of kids get cramped up and go down on defense. So, we had some kids step in there and those kids were playing their butts off,” Palmer said.
Not long after the turnover, senior Briggs Bartosh took a short shovel pass in for a 3-yard score to push the lead to 34-17 with 6:13 to go in the contest. Bartosh had more than 100 yards from scrimmage on the night, finishing with nine carries for 64 rushing yards and five receptions for 46 yards.
Jones stuffed the stat sheet with 179 yards on 15 attempts with three scores. Paulakovich completed 10 of his 19 pass attempts for one touchdown and one interception in his first career start under center.
“He’s (Paulakovich) still got some improvement to go through, but the good thing is that when he’s got a supporting cast that can manage a lot of the workload for him, we just let him play his game. He’s going to learn that he can do a lot of special things in this offense, getting the ball to these cats,” Palmer said.
The Park Hill South defense caused havoc for Rock Bridge’s quarterback, sacking him five times, led by Jake Hicks and Jayvious Smith both had a team-high 7.5 tackles. The Panthers will be on the road this week, taking on Lee’s Summit North (0-1) on September 2.