November 21, 2008 12:15 pm
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By JIM OTTS
Register Correspondent
SAINT JO — The potent Strawn Greyhounds brought an early end to the first playoff run of the Six-Man era for the Saint Jo Panthers with a 60-8 pasting Thursday.
The Greyhounds, ranked third in polls for Texas teams that play Six-Man football, got a remarkable five-touchdown performance from senior Christian Johnson.
The Hound receiver and running back scored every time he touched the ball.
Teammate Johny Abbott threw him touchdown passes of 44 and 56 yards to give the visitors an early lead and he added touchdown runs of 24, six and 20 yards later to push the Greyhounds far enough ahead to end the game at the half.
Abbott added a touchdown of 58 yards for Strawn the only time he rushed with the ball, Trey Doyle had a 10-yard touchdown run and Jonathon Lindsey scored from five yards. Peyton Ginn added extra point kicks on six of the eight touchdowns.
PAT kicks are worth two points each in 6-man football.
Saint Jo found the Greyhounds to be tough defensively as well.
Quarterback John Terilli’s first three pass completions went for negative yardage and eight of the Panther’s 14 running plays were losses.
The hosts went through the first 10-minute quarter and 1:10 of the second before getting a first down. That came on a Terilli pass to Aaron Sapp good for 21 yards.
Strawn’s scoring machine racked up a 52-0 lead with 3:13 left in the half, enough to halt the contest if that lead held till the intermission. If one team leads by 45 or more points at halftime, or at any time in the second half, the game is halted by what is known as the mercy rule.
The Panthers were not ready to quit and instituted a tactical change. Shaden Clark lined up in the quarterback’s spot and Terilli moved wide right as a receiver. Terilli got behind the defenders, Clark heaved a 42-yarder to him and Terilli romped in for six. Austin Neely added the two-point kick.
Strawn returned the starters to action and ran a couple of sweeps to get to the Panther 20 before Johnson added his fifth TD of the evening.
The Panthers needed to respond and had less than a minute. Terilli passed to Jake Ellingwood for three and then the Maroons tried the Clark to Terilli combination once more.
Hopes ended with an interception by Greyhound free safety Adrian Garcia at the Panther 30 and Garcia became quarterback and took a knee on the game’s final play.
This is the first year in Six-Man ranks for Saint Jo and the Panthers finish with a 6-5 record. Strawn is 11-1 and continues on to the quarterfinal round to face the winner of the Greenville Phoenix-Gordon contest.
“We didn’t have a great year at 6-5, but we were 0-20 in our last two years of 11-man ball, so this is progress,” Saint Jo Coach Chad Tallon said. “We wish tonight had gone better but when good teams get on a roll it is sometimes hard to get them stopped.”
Strawn agreed to play in Saint Jo after the coaches met and had trouble finding a suitable neutral site. Strawn is located just off Interstate Highway 20 about half way between Fort Worth and Abilene.
“They pretty much offered the home field advantage to us,” Tallon said. “Of course, they have a great team and could play anyone anywhere.”
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