Two-minute flurry enables Panthers to turn CCC matchup with Cougars into lopsided affair

PALMYRA, Mo. — In the blink of an eye, a one-score game turned into a rout.

Its explosive offense held relatively in check during the opening 17 minutes Friday night, the Palmyra football team turned three Highland turnovers into 24 points in a little more than two minutes late in the first half to take a commanding 32-0 lead and coast to a 46-6 Clarence Cannon Conference victory.

For the Panthers, who rushed for 536 yards in a resounding 56-14 victory over Macon a week ago, it marked the first time since Weeks 3 and 4 of the 2021 season that they registered back-to-back wins. And in winning for the third time in four games, they already have eclipsed their victory total from a year ago.

Yet, they didn’t leave the field fully satisfied.

“Winning is what we’re out there to mainly do, but that’s not enough,” running back Wyatt Augspurg said. “We want to improve. We can’t settle for some of this stuff. We need to play every snap with 100 percent effort and not take plays off.

“When we finally ended up picking it up, good things happened. I think everybody got their heads screwed on right and realized what that they were out there to do and executed.”

Augspurg, who accounted for 347 yards and three touchdowns against Macon, finished with 123 of Palmyra’s 217 rushing yards Friday night. But Palmyra’s running game was held in check early, forcing two quick punts and considerable frustration on the sideline.

“Respect to Highland, they came out with a nice plan defensively, something different we hadn’t seen on film. They did a really good job of taking away the wide zone,” said Palmyra coach Dalton Hill, whose team moved to 2-0 in the CCC.

“We have to be better up front. We’ve got to be more physical. And when teams make adjustments like that, we’ve got to be able to run inside the tackles a little bit more and get our backs the seams they need to be successful.”

The Panthers did just that on their third possession, chewing up almost seven minutes in marching 82 yards on 13 plays. Landon Carroll finished off the drive by bouncing outside to score from the 8-yard line less than two minutes into the second quarter, and Pierce White added a two-point conversion run to make it 8-0.

Highland had an opportunity to answer after Palmyra fumbled a punt at its 32, but after the Cougars recorded their only first down of the opening half, the Panthers’ Raeson Miller intercepted a third-down Johnathon Hager pass at the 2 and returned it to the 12.

With the Cougars still intent on stopping the run, Panthers quarterback Rylan Compton went to work in the air. Two completions, including a 26-yard throw to Laden Simmons, moved the ball into Highland territory.

Then, after a pass interference penalty, Compton rolled to his left and found Simmons, who ran untouched down the far sideline for a 20-yard score with 3:13 left in the first half. Another successful two-point conversion made it 16-0.

That’s when the game turned.

Highland fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Palmyra recovered at the 28. One play later, Compton again rolled to his left and hooked up with Simmons for another score. The two-point conversion increased the lead to 24-0.

“It’s just about making some adjustments,” said Compton, who completed 7 of 9 pass attempts for 114 yards and the two scores in the first half after having zero passing yards against Macon. “We just set up the boot, it worked pretty well, and we had wide-open touchdowns.”

“We’ve got to be a little more dynamic on offense, a little more balanced,” said Hill, whose team finished with 127 passing yards. “We were able to find those little wrinkles in their defense to make it successful.”

Three plays later, Palmyra cornerback JT Thomas jarred the ball loose from Konner Coffman-Kenal after a short completion in front of the Panthers’ bench and Miller returned the fumble 49 yards for a touchdown.

Suddenly, it was 32-0.

“We’ve got to have (turnovers) to be successful in a football game,” Hill said.

A 44-yard run by Augspurg set up a 32-yard touchdown scamper down the near sideline by Carroll three-and-a-half minutes into the second half that helped push the lead to 40-0 and begin a running clock.

Augspurg then weaved through traffic for a 14-yard scoring run before Highland avoided the shutout when Chris Gaus took a short swing pass from Hager and raced 52 yards down the far sideline for the score with 1:52 remaining in the third period.

It was the first points in eight quarters for the Cougars, who have lost nine in a row and fell to 0-4 this season in their CCC debut. They managed only two first downs, rushed for just 6 yards on 15 tries and had a minus-10 yards passing before Gaus’ catch-and-run touchdown.

Despite the wide victory margin, Palmyra players and coaches were not satisfied. They pointed to three turnovers, six penalties and an uneven offensive showing at times as areas for improvement before hosting North Callaway on Sept. 27.

“(Being 3-1) is a big improvement, but we’re not going to dwell on this,” Augspurg said. “We’ve got a bunch of stuff to clean up if we’re gonna move on and keep it going.”