Written By: JMF
Fleming County was looking to bounce back after last week’s loss to Mason County. Rowan County was coming off their 1st win of the season last week after defeating Bath County. The two schools are separated by 24 miles, and Fleming County would travel 30 minutes to the southeast to face the Vikings. Both teams hungry for more wins, but only one could prevail. On this night, the Panthers of Fleming County would prove to be too strong for the Vikings of Rowan County.
Coach Bill Spencer would have his team ready to bounce back and with a hunger in the Panthers eyes, they would slice and dice their way through the Rowan County defense for a total of 399 yards and 19 1st downs. The Panthers would run the ball 33 times for 226 yards, complete 16 passes through the air for 173 yards, on their way to scoring 40 points.
The Panthers’ offense wasn’t the only unit dialed in and hungry. The Panthers’ defense was equally hungry and looking to redeem themselves after allowing 49 points, 366 total yards and 7 TDs last week to Mason County. The defensive unit would pounce on the Vikings’ offensive unit and hold them to a total of 14 points and a total of 185 yards for the game. This is very impressive considering that last week Rowan County had a total of 379 yards and 6 TDs last week against Bath County. However, the Panthers’ defense would not allow any such thing this week. Rowan County was only able to manage 43 yards on the ground on 33 rush attempts, while allowing only 142 yards on 24 completions through the air.
The Panthers would strike first and jump out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st. Rowan County would score late in the 1st quarter to get within 8 points at 14-6. However, Rowan County would not score again until late in the 4th quarter. Fleming County would score two more times in the 2nd quarter to extend the lead to 26-6 at halftime. It was much the same in the 2nd half. Fleming County would score once in the 3rd quarter to build a 33-6 lead, and would cruise to a 40-14 win after scoring one more time in the 4th quarter. Rowan County would score late in the 4th quarter to give the final score of 40-14 in favor of the Panthers from Fleming County.
Offensively, the Panthers were led by Austin Trent who would run for 132 yards on 17 carries and scoring 2 TDs. Aiden Johnson would carry the ball 5 times for 40 yards and 2 TDs. Jordan Harn would carry the ball 5 times for 25 yards and 2 TDs. Nate Martin would have a nice bounce back game, completing 15 of 16 passes for 173 yards through the air. Landon Johnson would have 6 catches for 89 yards. Jordan Harn would have 4 catches for 32 yards. Austin Farrow would have 2 catches for 27 yards. Isaac Frye would have 1 catch for 19 yards.
At the time of this writing, the individual stats for Rowan County were unavailable.
Fleming County (3-1) enters a bye week, and will be back in action on September 22, when they enter district play as they host the Russell Red Devils (2-2) for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Rowan County (1-3) will host Mason County (2-2) on Friday, September 15th for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Photos Courtesy of Kerry Washington
