MONTICELLO – After six straight wins, the Paxton-Buckley-Loda varsity football team suffered its first loss of the 2024 season.
Despite the 33-0 loss to Monticello on Friday, PBL coach Josh Pritchard says the season is far from over.
“I told the kids I don’t want to let this ruin a good season. We’ve played well. We’re 6-1,” Pritchard said. “We’ve got two more regular season weeks and then we’re going to start game planning for the playoffs.”
Monticello drove into PBL territory on the game’s opening possession, but Carson Goss sacked Ike Young. The Sages (6-1, 5-1 Illini Prairie Conference) punted three plays later.
The Panthers (6-1, 5-1) went three-and-out on their opening possession before punting to Monticello’s 39-yard line. A run by Young gained six yards before a pass completion to Nolan Buehnerkemper resulted in a first down.
On the next play, a run by Young moved the ball to PBL’s 31-yard line. Bryar Cosgrove and Matt Suaava tackled Koyie Williams for no gain before Buehnerkemper caught a pass on fourth-and-10 to move the ball to the 8-yard line.
From there, Young ran for a touchdown that gave the Sages a 7-0 lead with 4:14 left in the first quarter.
On the first play of PBL’s ensuing possession, a run by Conner Vaughn was called back due to a holding penalty. That would be the senior quarterback Vaughn’s last play of the game as he left with a knee injury.
The Panthers already lost their backup quarterback, Christian Lopez, on a defensive play on Monticello’s opening possession. Lopez is out for the season after an X-ray showed a leg fracture.
“I’m assuming Conner will have an MRI sometime this week,” Pritchard said. “We’ll see if we can maybe get him back. We’re hoping for the best. I think every coach will tell you they’re hoping for the best and expecting the worst. We’re going to try to do whatever we can, and no matter who we have back there, we have full confidence. We’ve just got to play harder and I’ve got to do whatever I can do to try to set up plays that work.”
With Kayden Vance in at quarterback, PBL went the entire opening half without a first down.
“I guess I just didn’t do a good enough job of trying to figure out what plays we could run with people who haven’t taken a snap in practice,” Pritchard said.
Monticello added another touchdown to its lead via an 11-play, 65-yard drive that ended as a fumble by Young on a third-and-goal from the 4-yard line was recovered in the end zone for a touchdown with 9:18 left in the second quarter.
Buehnerkemper made a couple of field goals to extend Monticello’s lead to 20-0.
His first field-goal attempt came after Young bobbled a snap on first-and-goal from the 6-yard line. Following an incomplete pass, Russ Brown caught a pass on third-and-13, but was tackled by Bryar Cosgrove for a loss of one yard before Buehnerkemper made the field goal from 29 yards out.
Buehnerkemper’s second field goal was made from 39 yards out with three seconds left in the first half.
After another three-and-out by PBL’s offense, Buehnerkemper caught a pass from Young for a 62-yard touchdown with 8:25 left in the third quarter to extend the Sages’ lead to 27-0.
“It got ugly quickly,” Pritchard said. “I really don’t think we played terribly on defense. We didn’t play great by any means, but we got some stops and forced some field goals. It’s hard to put all those points on our defense when our offense can’t move the football. They’re whooping us up front. They’ve got essentially nine guys in the box because we can’t throw the football, and I’m not going to put our quarterback in a bad situation who hasn’t taken a snap in 10-11 months.”
With sophomore Sam Hall in at quarterback, a pass intended for Vance resulted in a pass interference penalty that moved the chains for PBL’s offense for the first and only time of the game. After a false-start penalty, Jack Wesslund caught a pass for six yards on first-and-15 before Robert Boyd-Meents ran for one yard and a screen pass for Colsen Hayden lost four yards on third-and-8, forcing PBL to punt.
Monticello’s next possession resulted in a blocked kick with 2:09 left in the third quarter before Buehnerkemper intercepted a pass three plays later on a third-and-8 with 1:15 remaining in the quarter.
With Monticello leading 33-0, Andrew Calver recovered a fumble for PBL to give the Panthers the ball on Monticello’s 39-yard line before a Hall fumble was recovered by Jake Motsegood with 6 ½ minutes left in the game.
The Panthers will host Tolono Unity at 7 p.m. next Friday.
“We’ve got a week to get ready for Unity. We’re going to try to put together the best game plan. We’ll get a kid with some reps into Weeks 8, 9 and 10,” Pritchard said. “We’ve just got to get back to physicality up front because we weren’t very physical. Credit to their defense for really swarming our kids.”
Monticello 33, PBL 0
PBL 0 0 0 0 — 0
MON 7 13 7 6 — 33
Scoring summary
MON – Young 8 run (Buehnerkemper kick).
MON – Fumble recovery (Buehnerkemper kick).
MON – Buehnerkemper 29 FG.
MON – Buehnerkemper 39 FG.
MON – Buehnerkemper 62 pass from Young (Buehnerkemper kick).
MON – Romano 9 run (kick failed).