Panthers' first win a shutout over Amery

• Ellsworth's Jarek Fischer

Jarek Fischer plans to step-over and around a would-be Amery tackler.
• Grape Crush

Ellsworth defenders wash over Amery's quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.

Talk about it

Just being there was the most important thing Ellsworth needed to win its first game of the 2012 season, which it did Friday over Amery 24-0 at Fuller-Symes Field.

Last week the Panthers were missing players due to suspensions and inelligibilities and was missing head coach Claire Austin due to a death in his family. EHS was thrown for a loop and lost the season-opener to Spooner 33-21.

"We didn't handle adversity well last week and I think just being here tonight for all of us was important to get back to playing our kind of football," Austin said.

And all together the Panthers took control of the game in the second quarter and used a big play in the fourth quarter to stay in control to beat a Warrior squad coming off a big win over Hayward the week before.

A bad snap on a punt set up EHS's first TD, a six-yard run by Brandon VanderMarliere. In the second quarter Panther quarterback Jake Murphy connected with Alex Campbell on touchdown passes of 10 and one yard to put the Purple past Amery 18-0 at halftime.

There was no scoring in the third quarter and as Ellsworth stagnated on offense, there was some danger Amery could get back in the ballgame with a big play. Instead it was EHS with said big play on a 34-yard scoring pass from Murphy to Campbell.

"You go to your playmakers to get big plays and that's what Alex did for us tonight," Austin said. "We wanted to keep momentum by scoring that's what we did."

Campbell caught five passes for 78 yards and Murphy was 6-for-10 with 111 yards and three touchdowns. The Panthers rushed for 174 yards on 48 carries led by Logan Kemmerer's 71 yards on 12 carries followed by 53 yards on 10 carries by VanderMarliere and 42 yards on eight carries for Dan Geise.

EHS's defense held Amery to just 111 yards total offense and zero yards passing despite having a good passing outcome vs. Hayward. Matt Stoezel led Ellsworth on defense with eight tackles and two sacks.

Ellsworth is at Somerset next Friday. The win was EHS's second straight shutout of Amery.

Tags: prep football, sports, prep, ellsworth