South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Football Panthers end 11-game losing streak with convincing win over Northwest

The Mehlville Senior High School football Panthers dropped the Northwest Lions Friday night to end an 11-game losing streak.

With a 42-12 victory over Northwest, the Panthers ended the streak in a convincing manner.

“The seniors are excited. It’s been awhile. Last year was a real rough one for them. And myself, I’m really happy to get the first win,” Mehlville head coach Eric Meyer said.

Mehlville never trailed the Lions, who couldn’t stop the Panthers’ running game led by senior Remington Grigsby.

“Our offense did a good job running the ball early, so it set the tone,” the Mehlville coach said.

Grigsby accounted for 124 of Mehlville’s 297 yards gained on the ground, and rushed for two touchdowns, caught a touchdown and returned a fumble for a touchdown.

Until Grigsby’s fumble recovery, Northwest seemed able to answer the Panthers.

“It was a tight game, and that fumble recovery that Remington Grigsby had really put them back. That was a game-changer for us,” Meyer said.

Mehlville led 14-0 after the first quarter with a two-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Zach Hayes to Grigsby and a two-yard run by Dan Parrott that was set up by a blocked punt by junior Mike Sulya.

Lions quarterback Matt Miniea cut the lead to 14-6 on a nine-yard run to start the second quarter.

Northwest was moving in Mehlville territory after Grigsby’s second touchdown when Grigsby picked up the Northwest fumble and raced 60 yards to the end zone.

“It was a big momentum-changer,” Meyer said.

Mehlville took a 28-6 lead into the locker room at halftime, and scored the first 14 points of the second half on runs by Grigs-by and sophomore Chase Brown.

The Panthers showed no resemblance of last year’s winless team that averaged 12.2 points a game and allowed an average of 33.4 points. They did the opposite Friday.

“I thought the defense played really well,” Meyer said. “We had a couple letdowns, but for the most part I thought we did real well.”

Hayes only went to the air 10 times, but completed eight passes for 51 yards.

“When we asked him to throw the ball, he did a really good job,” Meyer said.

Senior Pat Mudd made eight tackles to lead the defense.

Mehlville visits Eureka at 7 p.m. Friday in the teams’ first matchup since 2007.

“We just need to keep getting better,” Meyer said. “Eureka is a good football team, so we have our hands full.”

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