By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

COLLINSVILLE – Coming into Friday night’s Class 2A, Region 8 football battle at Collinsville, second-year Sand Rock coach and former Collinsville quarterback/offensive coordinator Tanner Nelson had a sound approach for defending against the high-scoring Panther offense.

The Wildcat offense kept the ball away from it for much of the first half.

Collinsville had just three possessions, but still managed to score on two of those drives to take a two-touchdown halftime advantage.

Sand Rock had its chances to make it a tighter game, especially on a 13-play, 79-yard drive that ate up nearly eight minutes of the clock.

The Wildcats drove down to Collinsville’s 1-yard line and had a first-and-goal, but the Panther defense has also been pretty good this season too.

Collinsville’s ‘D’ delivered a goal-line stand. Noah Johnson tackled Sand Rock quarterback Alec Ashley for a 2-yard loss on third-and-goal. The Wildcats went for fourth down, but an Ashley pass fell incomplete.

That defensive stand seemed to spark the Panthers heading into the locker room. They came out in the third quarter and scored on four of five drives in a 42-0 victory.

“That was a big goal-line stand,” Collinsville coach Ernie Willingham said. “They (Sand Rock) did a good job moving the ball all the way down. They had a first-and-goal. We had a stunt, and Johnson broke through and got (Ashley) for a 3-yard loss. That put them a little in the hole. I thought the defense did a good job of holding up there, but we couldn’t get the ball away from them. They kept the ball the whole half.

“Sand Rock had a really good plan. They kept the ball away from us. We scored every time we got it in the second half, but they had a good plan.”

Nelson can only wonder what might’ve been had the Wildcats (2-2, 1-2) scored on that late first-half possession.

“We had a chance right there, but we just made a wrong read,” he said. “It’s frustrating. We had couple of chances early against a good football team. I think we’ve got a good football team, but we’ve got to find some ways once we get down there (in the red zone) to punch it in. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and get something figured out.”

Mason McAteer once again was the catalyst for the Panthers (4-0, 3-0). He completed 9-of-13 pass attempts for 220 yards, including a 68-yard touchdown to Jeremiah Killian in the second quarter. McAteer also ran for 44 yards on seven carries with three touchdowns – a 14-yard run in the first quarter, and runs of 9 and 5 yards on the Panthers’ first two drives of the second half.

Killian was McAteer’s top receiver, with three catches for 110 yards. Sylas Adams also had three catches for 53 yards.

Backup quarterback Bentley Jones gained 21 yards on five totes with a 1-yard score in the fourth quarter. Logan Hanson added 50 yards on four carries with an 18-yard touchdown for Collinsville’s final score.

Another reason Collinsville’s offense was unable to click on all cylinders were penalties. The Panthers were flagged 16 times during the game, something that was immediately addressed by the Collinsville coaches following the game with sprints and crawls.

Nick Clanton led the Wildcats with 53 yards on 11 carries. Lucas Brown added 46 yards on nine totes. Ashley completed 6-of-15 pass attempts for 31 yards.

Both teams step out of region play next Friday night. Collinsville hosts Class 5A Douglas (3-1). Sand Rock entertains Valley Head (0-5).