After a thrilling win over Edna the week before, the Blanco Panthers pulled out a hard-fought victory over the Jourdanton Indians this past Friday in Floresville. The 14 to 13 win sets up a rematch against the district champion, Lago Vista Vikings. Lago was also faced with a tough test last week winning 30 to 23 over Odem.

While both teams did nothing more than trade field position in the first quarter of play, the Indians struck first, scoring on a 1 yard run early in the second quarter. Following a successful PAT, Jourdanton led 7 to 0. It wasn’t until late in the half before the Panthers mounted a successful drive, covering 63 yards in 8 plays with QB Tanner Rogers passing to Colton Childress for a 40 yard score. Although Blanco missed the PAT, an off sides penalty against the Indians gave TJ Raby a second chance that he took advantage of to tie the score at 7 all going into halftime.

The second half began much the same as the first with the third quarter proving to be a battle of field position. However, the fourth quarter saw Jourdanton take advantage of a Blanco turnover and drive 47 yards in 5 plays to regain the lead on an 8 yard TD run. On the ensuing extra point attempt, Sr. Mike Garza made a huge play, blocking the extra point attempt to leave the score at 13 to 7. Although Blanco suffered another turnover deep in their own territory, the Panthers forced the Indians to turn the ball over on downs with a big defensive stop on 4th down. From their own 28 yard line, Blanco put together their second impressive drive of the night, going 72 yards in 12 plays taking almost 6 minutes of the clock, ending with Rogers hitting Tim Goodman in the flats for a 10 yard scoring pass with just 1:08 left to play. Although Raby was short on the extra point attempt, the officials had blown the play dead before the snap due to a Panther false start. Once again, Blanco was given a second chance, this time from 5 yards back Raby split the up rights to make the score 14 to 13. In the final minute of the game, the Blanco defense smothered any hopes the Indians had of scoring as they never even made it to midfield and the Panthers held on for a 14 to 13 win.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Panthers were held to just 10 first downs and 185 yards on the night. Rogers accounted for over 90 all-purpose yards in addition to Childress’65 yards.

Defensively, Blanco forced a fumble recovery by Tyler Brown in addition to sacks by Britton Wagner and Byrun Mabry while holding the Indians to just 5 completions on 16 passing attempts for just 37 yards. However, Jourdanton picked up 17 first downs and 236 yards on the ground.

With the victory, Blanco improves to 7 and 5 on the year and will now take on the 10 and 1 Lago Vista Vikings. Kick-off is set for 7:30pm in Austin on Saturday at House Park.