Panthers Win In Triple Overtime

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Oct 5, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Four quarters of football wasn’t enough Friday night for the Panthers of South Ridge and the Grizzles of North Woods as the Panthers scored in the third overtime to defeat the Grizzles by a score of 24-18.

The Panthers scored the first two touchdowns Friday night as Colton Peterson scored on a 24 yard pass from Kody Karppinen in the second quarter to make the score 6-0 and gave South Ridge a 6-0 lead at halftime.

Karppinen scored in the third quarter on a 1 yard run to put the Panthers in front 12-0 after three quarters of play. The Grizzles didn’t say die though as they scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter which forced the Panthers and Grizzles to move into overtime.

“I told them we have faced a lot of adversity so far this season,” South Ridge Head Coach Tony DSeLeon told his troops before the overtime began. The Panthers have behind at halftime in their past three games but have responded to pick up the wins. I told them to keep fighting, keep conmpeteing, that’s what we want to do in every game is to be competitive. After (North Woods) came back our defense played just unbelievable”

The first overtime saw North Woods scoring first to put the Grizzles in front on a 1 yard touchdown run from Jaret Sandberg and the Grizzles were in front 18-12. The Panthers responded right back as Devon Lee scampered 10 yards into the end zone on first down to tie the game at 18-18, the two point conversion failed and both teams moved into the second overtime.

The second overtime went scoreless and in the third overtime Karppinen connected with Drew Janke on a 3 yard touchdown pass and the Panthers pick up the huge road win Friday night at Cook in a Big North Conference contest.

The win is the fifth in a row for South Ridge, who move to 5-1 on the season. They will face undefeated Mountain Iron-Buhl next Friday night in Culver with first place in the conference on the line. “Tonight we believed in each other and came together as a team,” Stated DeLeon.

The five wins represent more wins than the team has put in the books in the past three years combined, something DeLeon attributes entirely to the players. “We have a special group of juniors and seniors who get along well and believe in each other. We have also had a couple of breaks go our way, but mostly it is just the kids working hard and enjoying playing hard nose football.”

The Grizzles fall to 4-2 on the season after suffering their second straight defeat. The Grizzles will hope to rebound next Friday night as they will face the Huskies of Bigfork. The Huskies enter with a 4-2 record on the season and are coming off a 28-6 win over Mountain Iron-Buhl.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com