The Creston Panthers made timely plays and stymied Atlantic’s offense in a 39-0 win on Friday night at the Trojan Bowl. The Panthers hit a 30-yard pass play on a third down to keep their opening drive alive, and eventually punched in a score to grab the early lead. The two teams traded interceptions on the next two drives and then Creston forced an Atlantic punt. The next play was a 64-yard touchdown run by Brennan Hayes to put the Panthers up 12-0. They would slowly build their lead from there.

Atlantic made some nice defensive plays throughout the night but the Trojan offense just couldn’t get anything going. The Trojans had a chance to try to gain some momentum late in the first half after forcing a Creston punt and getting the ball in Panther territory. But the first play of Atlantic’s drive was a mishandled pitch play that was recovered by the Panthers. With a little over 2 minutes left in the half, Creston had enough time to drive in for a late score to make it 26-0 at halftime.

Creston would get two receiving touchdowns from tight end Josh Schaefer on their first two drives of the second half and the running clock set in place. Neither team would put any more points up as the clock melted away.

Creston quarterback Cael Turner finished 18 of 22 passing for 285 yards and five touchdowns. Creston moved to 6-0 on the season and 2-0 in Class 3A District 6. Next up for the Panthers is a trip to Knoxville next week.

Atlantic dropped to 2-4 on the season overall and 1-1 in district play. The Trojans will host Perry next week, we’ll have that game on KJANTV.