Senior Laurence Allderdice with his mom Dusty Allderdice, brother Junior Weston Allderdice and dad Dave Allderdice on Parents night.
By Fred Watstein
There were all the great components of an awesome football game Friday. Soggy field, chilli flowing, nip in the night air, fire truck sirens blaring all the makings of a great game. Only thing not great? The final score of 44-22 Valier Panthers the victors. The Big Sandy squad played a great game. Three things I noticed on Valier's team that makes them tough to beat. For starters they have a 6'6" receiver who is always open due to his height. They also have two of those running backs that seem to bounce when they run and their legs seem to spin as fast as road runners when running. So the Pioneers had their work cut out for them. For a big part of the game it was a defensive battle. It was great to watch Big Sandy really have to battle another team. Big Sandy's talent runs deep and this team shouldn't be counted out for the season. We hung on for most of the game staying within striking distance, but just couldn't quite blow open the Valier defense. The first quarter ended with the Pioneers getting shut down in the red zone, but then coming out to hold Valier on downs 3 and out. The Pioneers received the punt and started the second quarter from the 40. They proceeded to drive down the field and score on an awesome grab by Clint Darlington making the score 6-6 at that point. Valier would come back and put another in the end zone to make the score 13-6 at the half, but the men in purple went to the locker room knowing they could run with the panthers.
The third quarter was a battle with no one scoring most of the the quarter. Valier wore some holes in the Big Sandy defense getting a score at the end of the third and then coming out and scoring at the beginning of the fourth. Big Sandy did not back down. Instead Laurence Allderdice had a 61 yard kickoff return showing the Panthers that the Pioneers were not about to circle up the wagons for the night. Then Valier Scored. Then Big Sandy responded with a score making it 32-22 Valier up with 4:50 to go. If Valier was less of a team this is where we would have had them, but Valier is a top team in the division this year and seem to not get rattled by much. Valier finished off the fourth quarter with two scores and their quarterback skillfully running the clock out. A defeat for the men in purple this Chilli Feed, but a great game that the Pioneer program will take lessons from for games to come.
Next week Geraldine-Highwood comes to town for the last home game Friday. Then for the last game of the season the Pioneers will travel to Augusta on Wednesday the 19 to play at 2 p.m. Whoever scheduled that last game midweek as to not mess up the four day deer hunting weekend, you are a genius my friend.
