Panther Football Loses Final Home Game 26-0

PLYMOUTH — The Panther football dropped their last home game of the season 26-0 to Buffalo State College’s Bengals. After winning their first game in three years last weekend, the Panthers played poorly this past weekend, and seemed to be just over matched and outplayed by the visiting Bengals. The Panthers offense could not get any momentum throughout the game, gaining only 112 yards of total offense. At times they ran the ball well, but they were too inconsistent to get any points on the board. The inconsistency of the offense made it hard on the defense, having to start off defending in their own territory much of the game. The defense gave up a few big plays that put the game out of reach. Plymouth’s Second year head coach Paul Castonia said, “The offense played poorly, they put the defense in tough situations.”Buffalo State got the scoring started in the first quarter when quarterback Mike Mikolaichik ran the ball for a touchdown from five yards out. In the beginning of the second quarter Mikolaichik stuck again, this time from fifty-one yards away. The Bengal special teams made a big play with 2:30 left in the half when they blocked a Panther punt and returned it for a safety. On the following possession Mikolaichik threw a forty-nine yard bomb to receiver Jeff Shostak. Halfway through the third quarter Bengal kicker Eric Buchanan nailed a field goal from thirty-four yards out.The Panthers suffered a big loss when starting quarterback Tye Seastedt hurt his shoulder in the second quarter. He did not play at all in the second half. The degree of the injury is not known.Mikolaichik finished the game with ninety-four yards rushing and another 183 passing. The Bengal defense finished with six sacks and was led by Senior Perry Taglienti who had eleven tackles. The defense had a huge game from Freshman Tyler McAniff who made 8 tackles and force two fumbles. Sophomores Dan Fallon and Tim Butler also came though big with twelve tackles and a forced fumble between the two of them. The offense was led by Freshman Jeff Mack, who led the team with sixty-two yards rushing on sixteen carries. Mack was followed closely by Freshman Chris Boyd (forty-nine yards, eleven carries) and Junior Jeremy Roberts (forty-seven yards, twelve carries).Overall, this season’s, Panther football has been much more competitive. Last season the team was 0-10. The team got shut out six of those games, including five in a row. Even when they were not shut out they were blown out, losing every game by a minimum of nineteen points. The team this year has been much closer in all of their games. Several of the games that have lost they have been very close.With the loss the Panthers move their record to 1-7. The Panthers hope to end the season on a positive note on November 6 when they travel to Mount Ida to take on the Mustangs (5-2).