Old district foes faced off Friday night as both Saint Jo and Gold-Burg showed how far each team has come since last year.
Following a switch in location due to rainfall, the game was played at Saint Jo. The Panthers roster doubles the Bears in terms of depth and had the advantage of size, but Gold-Burg let Saint Jo know they were there to play early in the game.
The Bear’s Blake Allen threw a touchdown and ran for another as Gold-Burg jumped out to a 20-14 lead as neither team could stop the other. The Bears recovered an onside kick and looked to take a two score lead.
Saint Jo answered by stopping Gold-Burg on fourth down and then Preston Lyons scored his second touchdown on a 8-yard run, the two-point kick giving the Panthers the first lead of the game midway through the second quarter 22-20.
The defense was able to stop Gold-Burg again on fourth down and Saint Jo added to their lead with Wyatt Geurin scoring from a yard out to go up 28-20. The Bears were looking to tie the game up before halftime as they drove the ball down inside the Panthers 5 yard-line, but fumbled the ball and Geurin recovered heading into halftime.
Saint Jo was able to extend its lead on their first possession of the third quarter. Lyons found Logan Morman from 19 yards out to go up 36-20. The Panther defense recovered another fumble. Gold-Burg’s defense did hold for the first time in the game, but their offense could not cut the lead down.
Lyons then threw a 23 yard touchdown pass to Hunter Garrett to go up 42-20. Saint Jo then recovered an onside kick and Blake Anderson scored from 10 yards out to go up 50-20 and the game seemed like it was veering to be out of reach.
Another attempted onside kick from the Panthers went wrong as the Bear’s Allen scooped the ball up and returned it for a touchdown to cut the lead to 50-27. The week before, Gold-Burg had almost pulled off coming back from more than three scores down and showed earlier in the game they could compete with Saint Jo, but they would need to get some stops.
The Panthers never let up though. Anderson scrambled 40 yards for a touchdown to give Saint Jo a 58-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Gold-Burg Coach Gordon Williams knew the game was getting out of reach but he was losing important players. Three of his starters went down during the game. A fourth one was banged up, but could have played through it, but Williams knew the smart thing to do would be to hold him.
Both teams played all of the fourth quarter with second and third team players. The Panther’s Anderson feasted on the competition, scrambling for two more long scores until Saint Jo eventually stopped the game by slaughter rule, the final score being 76-27.

To read the whole story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.