Coming off a tough loss the previous week at home to the undefeated Oakland Oakers, the Gold Beach Panther varsity football team would be on the road last Friday evening, traveling to Glide to take on the 2-4 Wildcats to finish off the 2022/23 football season.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the Panthers had something to prove to themselves and the Panthers wasted no time establishing their strength getting junior Jake Westerman, #7 on the board early. After establishing over 30 yards rushing on the ground, Westerman would put the ball in the endzone on a 1 yard run to put Gold Beach up 0-8.
The Panther defense would hold Glide scoreless early in the game before scoring again early in the second period, on another quarterback sweep to the right. After clearing the edge, Westerman outran the Wildcat defense 51 yards to the endzone, extending the Panther lead to 0-16.
The Panther defense would continue to keep the Wildcats scoreless, while creating offensive scoring opportunities for both Tyson Hilton, #22, and #11, Nelson Wilstead who both found the endzone on short runs sending the Panthers into the half-time break with a comfortable 0-30 lead.
Gold Beach continued to dominate both sides of the ball through out the second half of play, scoring twice more as Wilstead and junior Braidon Flynn both ran for touchdowns. Glide would get into the endzone late in the fourth period to make the final score 6-46 Gold Beach.
The Panthers finished the regular season with a record of 6-1 and ranked #6 by OSAA, setting up first round play-off game at home against the 4-2, #10 OSAA ranked Taft Tigers, Friday evening in Gold Beach at 7:00pm.
Talking with Panther head coach Chris Higgins after the game Friday, he said “We came out in Glide, determined to get back to playing Panther football after a couple of weeks of sickness ravaged our squad. My assistant Coach Ryan Baxter had a great practice plan drawn up for the week and the entire coaching staff assisted him very well as I was away due to a family emergency. We came out with a great mentality that was instant success and had fun in the process. I was very proud of him and my other staff for stepping up and having those kids ready to play ball when I met them in Glide.”
“We’re looking forward to hosting a home playoff game this next weekend against Taft High School in front of our own fans and putting on a show, so we can move onto the next round.” he conitnued. “This season has been a great year so far dating back to Football camp in June. These kids have really stepped up and matured into football players and its showed this season. 8-1 is a great record, but we still have work to do. We will all carry the mentality that we will play anybody in any place at anytime and in any weather to achieve what we set out to do… another shot at Oakland in the finals is exactly where we want to be!!
