Panthers face Truman in search of first win

Coming into the season, Park Hill South (0-2) knew they’d be tested right away against two high quality teams in Fort Osage and Blue Springs. Having played and lost those games, they head into Week Three looking to their next game against Truman as a key point in their season looking to rebound. Truman also comes into the contest with a 0-2 record after Liberty North scored a late touchdown to hand them a 12-6 loss last weekend. Head coach Mark Simcox says Truman offers the Panthers a more similarly-matched opponent than they’ve seen so far this year.

“They’re a lot more our speed, we match up a lot better with them,” Simcox said.

While he didn’t see his team play as well as he would have liked, Simcox did say he saw improvement in last Friday’s rain soaked, 35-14 loss to Blue Springs. They didn’t do themselves any favors either though as Blue Springs scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, the first of which came after the Panthers had a punt blocked on their first drive of the game. Both scores came from Blue Springs running back Dalvin Warmack who ended the game with 136 yards on 19 carries.

Things didn’t get much better in the second quarter as Blue Springs blocked another Park Hill South punt which resulted in a safety and a lost fumble led to another Blue Springs touchdown right before halftime increasing their lead to 27-0. Late in the game, Park Hill South was finally able to do what few teams in the metro were successful at last Friday: pass the ball. Quarterbacks Shaefer Schuetz and Carson Reid were both able to complete touchdown passes (82 and 21 yards) to put the Panthers on the border.

“We obviously allowed too many (points) and didn’t score enough, but last week we acted like we didn’t prepare very well and made an unbelievable amount of mistakes on both sides of the ball,” Simcox said. “This week, we got beat by a good team, but didn’t do a whole lot to help them out. So I think we made some big improvements and if we continue to do make improvements we’ll be fine.”