Game Recaps

The South Lyon Varsity Black Panthers captured the 2009 Panther Bowl Championship with a 24 - 6 victory over South Lyon Silver, Saturday afternoon at South Lyon East.

The game started slowly with both team moving the ball relatively well, but neither being able to sustain a drive and put points on the scoreboard.  The first quarter ended deadlocked at 0 - 0.

Silver struck first in the second quarter taking a 6 - 0 lead on a screen pass that covered 70 yards.  Black and Silver traded positions for most of the remaining time in the quarter, but Black was able to punch in a short touchdown run with 1:33 remaining in the half.  A successfull two point kick gave Black the lead 8 - 6.  Black quickly forced Silver's offense off the field and scored another touchdown on a 15 yard pass play with just 7.8 seconds to go in the half.  The two point conversion after the touchdown gave Black a 10 point lead, 16 - 6.

Black's defense never let Silver get momentum in the third quarter, and Black converted another passing touchdown of 14 yards, and along with the two point conversion, Black took a commanding 24 - 6 lead. 

The fourth quarter saw the two teams trade offensive possesions while neither team scored a touchdown.  A late interception by Black helped to seal the victory.

Congratulations to the 2009 Varsity Black Panthers on their 2009 Panther Bowl Championship.

The South Lyon Varsity Black Panthers jumped to an early lead over South Lyon Blue and cruised to a 38 - 6 win Wednesday night at South Lyon East.

The first quarter was all South Lyon Black, even though the offensive unit did not run a single play from scrimmage.  Black scored two defensive touchdowns in the quarter.  The first score resulted from a blocked punt that was scooped up and returned 55 yards for a touchdown.  Later in the quarter, Blue tried to convert a fourth down, but their long pass was intercepted and returned 75 yards for a score.  The quarter ended with Black leading 16 - 0 as both 2 point conversion kicks were successful. 

Blue hung in the game in the second quarter and moved the ball nicely down the field and scored their only touchdown of the game on a 15 yard pass play.  Black countered with their own long drive and pushed in a 1 yard touchdown run.  The half ended with Black leading 24 - 6.

Black continued to put defensive pressure on Blue.  After pinning Blue deep in their own territory by downing a punt at the 1 yard line, Black put intense pressure on Blue's quarterback as he attempted a pass from his own end zone.  The ball was tipped and intercepted in the end zone for another Black defensive touchdown which stretched Black's lead to 32 - 6.

With Black holding a commanding lead, the second offensive unit moved the ball very nicely and was rewarded with a 6 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring for a final score of 38 - 6.  This victory brought Black's record to 8 - 2 with one game remaining in the season.

The next game for South Lyon Black Varsity is the Panther Bowl Championship, Saturday afternoon at South Lyon East High School.

The South Lyon Varsity Black Panthers fought to a hard earned victory over Howell Green Saturday night at South Lyon East by a score of 22 - 18.  As has been the case throughout the season, this victory was a great team effort as players rotated through various positions and many different players made big plays at different points of the game.

The game started slowly as neither South Lyon nor Howell was able to score.  The Panthers played good defense during the quarter and were able to move the ball fairly well, but were not able to find the end zone.

Howell Green struck first in the second quarter on a 40 yard touchdown run.  The Panthers blocked the 2 point kick attempt and trailed 6 - 0.  Later in the quarter, Black answered with a 75 yard run for a score and converted their 2 point extra point that featured an outstanding protection and a great patience by the holder and kicker.  The half ended with the Panthers holding the lead, 8 - 6.

The third quarter was another tight defensive quarter.  Howell continued pounding the middle of the Panther defense with a bruising running game, but Black matched Green's intensity and was able to stuff Howell's attempts to reach the end zone.  The Panthers had attempted numerous long pass plays throughout the game, with a couple of near misses.  In the third quarter, Black continued attacking Green and the payoff was a 31 yard touchdown pass play.  Once again, the Panthers successfully converted a 2 point kick.  At the end of the third quarter, Black held a 10 point lead, 16 - 6.

Howell Green continued their running game against Black, but did begin mixing in some pass plays and completed a 20 yard pass play for a touchdown to cut South Lyon's lead to 16 - 12.  With the Panther's lead under one score, it was important to put more points on the board and Black did just that, scoring on a 20 yard run.  This time the extra point attempt failed and Black led 22 - 12.  The Panthers stopped Howell on their next possession and looked to be in control with about five minutes left in the game; however, Howell took advantage of a South Lyon turnover, returning a fumble 25 yards for a touchdown, to cut the lead to 22 - 18.  Black successfully fielded Green's on-side kick attempt and was able to make one crucial first down and then ran out the remaining time on the clock as Howell had used all of their time outs.

With the victory of margin just four points, the two successful extra point attempts the South Lyon converted, along with the three extra point stops by the Panther's special teams defense proved to be crucial to the final outcome.  If either the offensive or defensive results turned out differently, the final outcome of the game would have been in doubt.

The next game for South Lyon Black Varsity is in the first round of the Panther Bowl playoffs against the winner of the play in game matching South Lyon Blue and South Lyon White.  Black's game will be played on Wednesday.

The Varsity Black Panthers ran into a tough Hartland squad and saw their season record drop to 6 - 2 Saturday night at Hartland.

The first half of the game was close with Hartland scoring the only touchdown of the first quarter on a short touchdown run.  The Panthers answered with their own short touchdown run in the second quarter and converted a 2 point kick to take an 8 - 6 lead.  Hartland fielded the kick-off and ran a trick reverse that fooled the Panthers setting up another short touchdown run and a 12 - 8 Hartland lead.  Neither team scored again in the first half.

In the second half Hartland pulled away by scoring three consecutive touchdowns, all on the ground, to build a 30 - 8 lead in the fourth quarter.  South Lyon scored on a 23 yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.  Hartland scored one more touchdown to finish out the scoring for a final score of 36 - 16.

This upcoming week is the final week of the regular season and the Black Panthers will be working hard in practice to earn a win in their final cross over game, and look forward to heading into the Panther Bowl tournament with lots of momentum. 

Next on the schedule for Black is Howell Green at South Lyon East.

The Varsity Panthers got off to a slow start on a sloppy field at Hamburg on Saturday, but were still able to record their second shutout victory of the season.

The Panthers and Hamburg Red played a quick first quarter as each team tried to establish their running game.  Both teams moved the ball relatively well, but neither were able to put points on the scoreboard.

South Lyon opened up their offensive attack in the second quarter completing a 20 yard pass to the one yard line that set up the first touchdown of the game.  Later in the quarter, the Panthers scored again, this time on a 30 yard pass.  Following a Varsity Black interception, the Panthers scored their final touchdown of the day on a 10 yard run.

At this point in the game, the defense took over recording three more interceptions, multiple pass deflections and near interceptions, and numerous bone crunching hits.  South Lyon was hungry for the shutout and it showed in their play on the field.

For the season, the Panthers have played 28 quarters, allowing points in only 8 of those quarters.  Black is allowing just 11.3 points per game

The next game for South Lyon Black Varsity is a cross over game against undefeated Hartland Blue at Hartland.

On a day that the Panthers could not get their offense on track, South Lyon lost its first game of the season, 20 - 0, to visiting, undefeated Howell Black on Saturday afternoon.

Howell received the kick off to start the game and moved the ball down the field eventually scoring on a 55 yard touchdown run.  Howell scored two more times during the first quarter on runs of 24 and 4 yards.   They converted one two point conversion to end the quarter leading 20 - 0.

The Black Panthers struggled to move the ball consistently on offense throughout the game.  Defensively, South Lyon kept Howell off the board after their initial first quarter outburst.

The Panthers fought hard with a consistent effort throughout the game, and while they were disappointed by the outcome, this game served to strengthen their resolve to play each coming game as hard as possible.

The Panther's next game is away versus Hamburg Red.

South Lyon Black butted heads with a stubborn Fowlerville squad Saturday afternoon at South Lyon East and came away with a 28 - 6 victory in a hard hitting game.

South Lyon had two touchdown runs in the first quarter, 36 yards and 44 yards, converting on 2 point conversion to take a 14 - 0 lead.

Early in the second quarter, the Panthers scored again on a 30 yard run to make the lead 20 - 0.  Rounding out the scoring in the first half was a 75 yard interception return for a touchdown.  That interception return marked the fourth time in five games for the Varsity in which the defense has scored a touchdown.  With a succesful two point conversion, the first half ended with Black holding commanding 28 - 0 lead.

The second half was uneventful on the scoreboard, but the play on the field was still exciting.  The Panther's defense continued its strong play, but was denied its second shutout of the season after Fowlerville took possesion of the ball at South Lyon's 15 yard line.  Fowlerville scored on a touchdown run and the third quarter ended with Black leading 28 - 6.

In the fourth quarter the Panther's defense slammed the door on Fowlerville with another key interception and fumble recovery.  Fowlerville did advance inside Black's 20 yard line, but were turned away by a determined Black Panther squad.  Black lowered their points per game allowd to 11.8 with three more shutout quarters, while allowing points in only 7 of 20 quarters.

In a related Panther's note, Saturday marked the first Freshman, JV, Varsity sweep of the season for Black as all three squads won their games against Fowlerville.

The next game on the schedule for Black is a match up of undefeated teams as the Panthers take on Howell Black at South Lyon East.

South Lyon Black Varsity's explosive offense continued its outstanding play and the fierce defense unit limited visting Howell to one score, as the Panther's ran their perfect record to 4 - 0 with a 40 - 6 victory over Howell Silver Saturday afternoon at South Lyon East.

The Panthers managed just one score in the first quarter on an 84 yard touchdown run, while the defense invited itself into Howell's backfield, where it stayed most of the day, and kept Howell off the scoreboard.

Black exploded for 20 points in the 2nd quarter, matching their highest point total for a single quarter this year.  The Panthers' scored on 3 running plays.  The last touchdown was a short run that was set up by a pass interference penalty commited by Howell in the end zone with just .5 seconds remaining in the half.  Howell was able to push in one touchdown during the second quarter to make the halftime score 20 - 6.

South Lyon received the kickoff to start the second half and continued where they left off the first half, by returning the kick 70 yards for a touchdown.  That brought the lead to 32 - 6.  One more third quarter touchdown completed the scoring for the game, making the final score of 40 - 6.

Once again, the Panthers had excellent team balance as 3 different players scored touchdowns, numerous players had pass receptions and at least 13 different Panthers had rushing attempts.  The tough Panther defense continued their outstanding play putting constant pressue on Howell.  With three scoreless quarters in this game, Black has had 10 quarters, out of 16, in which they have held the opponent scoreless, and are giving up only 13.5 points per game.

The next game on the schedule for Black is a night game at South Lyon East against Fowlerville Gold.

The Varsity Black Panthers scored early and often on the way to their third straight victory Saturday afternoon at Hartland.  The Panthers started their scoring following a key defensive stop as Hartland attempted to score on 4th down from inside the 1 yard line.  On the second play following the tough defensive stand, Black struck for a 96 yard touchdown run.  However, Hartland quickly answered with its own 70 yard touchdown on its first play after the kickoff.

Black scored the next 22 points of the first half to take a commanding 30 - 6 halftime lead.  The Panther's scores came on 2 long touchdown runs, and for third game in a row, an interception return for a touchdown.  At the end of the first half, Black perfectly executed an onside kick to keep the ball away from Hartland's offense, keeping the 24 point lead intact.

After the halftime break, South Lyon put two more touchdowns on the board on the first passing touchdown of the year in the 3rd quarter and yet another touchdown run of more than 50 yards in the fourth quarter.  Hartland scored 4 touchdowns in the 2nd half, the last coming with just 20 seconds left in the game to make the final score a bit closer than the game truly was.

For the third game in a row, the Panthers scored more than the previous week.  A sometimes overlooked part of the scoring are points scored on extra points.  In Saturday's game, Black scored six touchdowns and converted five kicked extra points which accounted for ten of Varsity's points in this game.  The extra point conversions are a great example of how Varsity Black is getting outstanding play from offense, defense, and special teams.

The next game for the South Lyon Black Panthers is the first home game of the year against Howell Silver at South Lyon East High School.

The Varsity Panthers took advantage of numerous Byron turnovers to build an early lead on the way to an opening night victory Saturday night at Byron.  The Byron Eagles had a tough time holding onto a slippery ball as the start of the game was played in a light mist.

The Panthers scored 2 quick touchdowns in the first quarter to take a commanding lead.  The Panthers also displayed a rock solid defense, twice stopping Byron on downs after the Eagles had 1^st and goal situations.  After the first goal line stand, the Panthers took over the ball on their own 4 yard line and immediately scored on a 96 yard run, which featured outstanding running and timely blocking.

The second goal line stand came towards the end of the game and allowed the Panthers to maintain their defensive shutout.  Another defensive highlight was an interception that was returned over 50 yards for a touchdown.

The Panthers displayed a very solid team effort in this game with every player contributing to the final out come.

The next game for South Lyon Black Varsity is a night game at Brighton.

The Varsity Black overcame a slow start and ended up with their second victory of the season Saturday night in Brighton.  The Brighton Bulldogs moved the ball well on the ground and through the air in the 1st quarter, but were not able to score as the Panthers extended their shutout streak to 5 quarters.  South Lyon had trouble moving the ball in the opening quarter and did not score.

In the second quarter, Brighton scored on a run and Black faced their first deficit of the season; however, they quickly bounced back, returning the ensuing kick off for a touchdown, taking the lead 8 - 6 after a successful two point kick.  Brighton was able to drive the ball down the field, but the tough Panther defense stopped the Dogs in a 1st and goal situation to keep them out of the end zone.

Both teams continued strong defensive play int the 3rd quarter.  South Lyon blocked a punt deep in Brighton territory which setup a touchdown run.  Brighton managed a touchdown run of their own to keep the game close at 14 - 12.

The 4th quarter was all Black.  The Panthers took advantage of their depth and began to wear down the Dogs, scoring 20 unanswered points in the quarter, scoring on a run, an interception return - the second in two games, and a fake punt late in the game to seal the victory.

Next on the schedule for the Varsity Black is Hartland Black at Hartland.