Stout effort gives Central upperhand against Calhoun, leads to return to state semifinals

HARDIN, Ill. — Nathan Post held on to the ball as if his life depended on it.

“I was not letting that thing go,” Post said.

The Camp Point Central senior defensive lineman’s fumble recovery with 2:45 left helped seal the Panthers’ 16-7 win over Hardin Calhoun in Saturday’s Class 1A quarterfinals.

As the Warriors entered the red zone in search of a score that would keep their hopes alive, a fumbled exchange between Warriors quarterback Jacob Snyders and fullback Conner Longnecker put the ball on the turf. Post waded his way through the mass of humanity near the Panthers’ 15-yard line, got his hands on the pigskin and held on tight.

“I saw the ball pop out, and everybody was kind of kicking it around. I’m trying to get through all the legs and stuff,” Post said. “In the moment, I was like, ‘I’m not getting rid of this ball.’ It was my ball. I owned it.”

With time on the clock and Calhoun still with two timeouts, Panthers senior quarterback Elijah Genenbacher knew anything could still happen.

“I was so happy, but I knew we still had to get a few first downs,” Genenbacher said.

As it turned out, the Panthers needed two. On third and 2, fullback Kadin Niekamp carried multiple defenders for almost the entirety of his 18-yard run.

“We got to that third-down situation, and we just had to run the fullback like we’d done all game, stay with our bread and butter, and plow through,” Genenbacher said. “We got it done. Kadin Niekamp is an incredible runner.”

Three plays later, senior Nate Peters made it official with a 20-yard run.

“I knew that if I got it, I would just have to run hard and beat everyone to the outside, and that’s what I did,” Peters said. “I cut it back a little bit, got some extra yards and I made sure I didn’t fumble it. Right after that, I knew the game was over, and I was super pumped.”

That was only Peters’ seventh carry of the game, but he put his imprint on this game after spraining his ankle in the Panthers’ 14-13 loss to the Warriors in Week Two. To go along with his game-clinching run, Peters ran for a 4-yard touchdown on his first carry of the game to give the Panthers a 7-0 lead with 4:31 left in the first quarter.

“I was pumped,” Peters said. “I barely got in, but I knew I got in. I was like, ‘We’ve got to keep this going.’”

That 7-0 lead stood until halftime. The Panthers got the ball to begin the third quarter, and when they were faced with a fourth and 4 from their own 36-yard line, the Panthers reached into their bag of tricks.

Panthers coach Brad Dixon called a fake punt, and the players executed it to perfection. Genenbacher, who was lined up to punt, found Kolin Bockhold wide open in the middle of the field. Bockhold’s catch and run went for 33 yards and set up a 33-yard Marco Rodriguez field goal to give Central a 10-point cushion.

“We practice it every week, but we haven’t done it yet this year,” Genenbacher said. “Coach Dixon called it, and I was like, ‘Alright, here we go.’ Fake run, threw it, and Kolin grabbed it and kept running with it.”

Dixon saw a look he liked and trusted his gut.

“They had everybody up. We made the call, and obviously we still have to execute it, he’s got to catch it, all those things,” Dixon said. “That was a huge play in the game and one we had worked on all year, and this was the right time to use it.”

The Warriors answered with a Longnecker 26-yard touchdown run four minutes later. 

Central punched back with a much more traditional, Panthers-like drive to push their advantage back to two scores. The Panthers took 8 minutes to march 60 yards on 13 plays, and Genenbacher capped off their statement drive with a 3-yard touchdown run with 4:32 remaining.

“That’s exactly what we do,” Genenbacher said. “We just get chunks of yards at a time. We kept it going and kept moving the ball. Big thanks to our o-line for blocking for us.”

The Panthers dominated time of possession 29:35 to 17:55 and limited Calhoun to 218 yards on 37 plays.

“We knew every yard was going to be tough, and fortunately we put some drives together,” Dixon said. “There was nothing fancy about that game. You had to line up, put your hand in the dirt and go.”

The Panthers (11-1) advance to their third consecutive state semifinal and will try to make it three state championship game appearances in a row when they travel to Belleville Althoff at 2 p.m. next Saturday. Althoff (12-0) beat Casey Westfield 54-7 in another quaretrfinal matchup.

“It feels amazing,” Genenbacher said. “That’s always our goal to get there, and it’s a heck of a journey to get there.”