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The Panthers offense is showing no signs of slowing down as the season moves into the final stretch.
The Newberry Panthers (7-1) rolled over the Dixie County Bears (6-2) by a final score of 56-12.
Early Leads
Looking at the past array of Newberry’s games, they have a habit of putting up points in the first and second quarters.
On Friday, this trend continued with 28 points in the first quarter, then an additional 20 in the third frame. The defense backed up their offensive output by allowing six points in the first half.
The Panthers were forced to put in Makai Johnson after an injury to the starting QB Jaylen Zullo in September. While usually, this would hamper a team’s ability to score, Newberry has been averaging almost 55 points per game, save for a forfeit by Hamilton County that registered as a 2-0 win for Newberry.
The Season as a Whole
One might point to the opposition and say that Newberry has played teams with losing records on this seven-game winning streak, but the Dixie County Bears team they beat was averaging over 32 points per game prior to their current two-game losing streak.
For Dixie County, their two losses have come against teams that have lost a combined total of two games this season. Unfortunately for the Bears, these games have come on back-to-back weeks.
They will round out their season in three weeks with a trip to Jacksonville to take on the 6-1 Westside Wolverines. In other words, finishing 7-2 will not come easily for Dixie County in their 2019 season.
Newberry, on the other hand, still has two games remaining.
In a week, the Panthers will travel down to Ocala to take on St. John Lutheran (1-4) before rounding out the 2019 regular season at home in a showdown against Fort White (2-5).
If Edward Johnson’s team can continue this streak of high-octane offense combined with a shutdown defense then postseason aspirations should be on their horizon.
