Sebastopol football coach Keith Brown told his team prior to Friday night’s game that French Camp was probably the best two-win team in Class 1A football.
Brown proved to be somewhat prophetic as the Panthers played their best game of the season and pounded the Bobcats 42-14.
French Camp improves to 3-7 on the year and will finish out the season on Thursday night as they host Leake County.
For Wright, it was good to see his team play a four-quarter game after losing three division games by seven points or less.
“It was good to finally have a one night where we played for four quarters,” Wright said. “We played for four quarters and that’s what happens. We could easily be the No. 1 seed in the division. We were better than we have shown. And it does your heart good for the young guys. Being able to finish strong and get some momentum is important for these sophomores and juniors.”
The Panthers struck early when Ethan Wright hit Avery Summers on a short pass that the junior took 81 yards for a touchdown. Reese Churchill hit the PAT and French Camp took an early 7-0 lead.
Sebastopol responded with a time consuming drive as they went 51 yards in 13 plays. Kari Michaels hit Tyler Perkins on a 5-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed and French Camp held a slim 7-6 lead.
The Panthers then went on their own long drive as they went 69 yards in 10 plays. Wright went to the air again as he hit Silas Hodge on a 16-yard touchdown pass. Churchill’s PAT was good and French Camp led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
After the Bobcats turned the ball over on downs, French Camp went 76 yards in 10 plays as Wright hit Summers on a 10-yard touchdown pass. Churchill’s PAT was good and French Camp led 21-6.
The Bobcats then returned the ensuing kick as Luke McGarrity raced 67 yards for a touchdown with 1:58 left in the first half. Michaels hit Jess Johnson on the two-point conversion and Sebastopol cut the lead to 21-14.
But the Panthers didn’t sit on their lead as they went 46 yards in five plays as Wright hit Logan Miller on a 10-yard touchdown pass right before the half. Churchill hit the PAT and French Camp led 28-14 at the half.
“Going into the season, I thought this team might lose every game by two touchdowns,” Wright said. “But then you get into the season and it ended up not being that way. We could have won every game we played. It was a frustrating season in that way that we beat ourselves a lot of the time. But this is the first time that I can remember playing the last two games knowing that you aren’t playing for the playoffs or for playoff position.”
Sebastopol got the ball to start the second half but Michaels was intercepted by Summers. The Panthers then went 85 yards in 10 plays as Wright scored on a 17-yard run. Churchill’s PAT gave the Panthers a 35-14 lead.
The Bobcats turned the ball over on downs on their next two possessions while French Camp finished out their scoring as they went 49 yards in seven plays. Wright scored on a 2-yard run and Churchill hit the PAT to give the Panthers a 42-14 lead.
“I thought Ethan had a really good night,” Wright said of his nephew. “He did a really good job and the receivers ran good routes. At times this year, we would run bootleg and one guy would run the wrong way and he would have been the guy who would have been open. But we were very clean with our route running and it was very fulfilling. The offense looked like it was supposed to look. It’s one of those things you can sit down and show kids on film what a certain play is supposed to look like.”
Wright had another big night on offense for the Panthers. He went 10-of-15 passing for 200 yards and four TDs and also rushed 20 times for 146 yards. Hodge ran for 90 yards on 18 carries and had three catches for 42 yards. Summers had three catches for 106 yards while Noah Dew had two catches for 31 yards.
On defense, Wright had seven solo tackles, two assists and also forced a fumble while Hodge had four solo tackles, six assists and forced a fumble. Summers had four solo tackles, two deflections and an interception. Logan Wright had four solo tackles while Max Bronson, J.D. Leach and James Johnson each had two solo tackles and two assists. Benjamin Wright had two solo tackles and an assist while Casen Shurden had three assists and two hurries.
