PEKIN — When the final minute of regulation began Friday night in Pekin, fans of the Panthers were holding their collective breaths as Lynnville-Sully drove over midfield. As that final minute began, the Hawks were the ones closing in on snapping a 27-all tie in regulation.

Little did anyone know that by the end of that minute, those Panthers fans holding their breaths would be able to exhale in exhilaration. After holding the Hawks on fourth down with 20 seconds left, head coach Joe Donovan looked like he would be happy to head into overtime when a coverage read from earlier in the night changed his mind.

“My offensive coordinator saw a certain coverage up in the booth earlier and told me if (L-S) lined up in it again, we could take a look downfield,” Donovan said. “I asked (assistant coach) Juston Lamb about it. He said ‘Coach, why not?’”

Rather then kneel down for overtime, Panther quarterback Graham Wittrock threw a confident pass from the Panther 31 to Cade Millikin as the L-S 35. After reversing his field to get by one defender, Millikin got a crushing block by running back Quentin Garrels and ran down the sidelines for a 69-yard game-winning touchdown with seven seconds left to give sixth-ranked Pekin a thrilling 34-27 win over the Hawks that set off a wild celebration that could be felt all around Keokuk County.

“It got pretty crazy. I had a lot of people tell me they haven’t seen the crowd stand up and react like that in a long time,” Donovan said. “It was a great matchup of two good teams. Fortunately, we came out on the winning end.”

But even Donovan was amazed by how the final offensive play of the night ended up developing.

“I talked with Graham before the play and told him that, if he got in trouble, not to throw up a hail mary or do anything desperate,” Donovan said. “When I saw Cade wide open on the play, just like my coach told he would be, I couldn’t believe it. That’s when I thought we might have a shot here.”

Fittingly, a pass play provided Pekin with the winning score. For the first time this season, the Panthers needed their passing game to step up after scoring 17 of their 19 touchdowns in the opening two games on the ground.

Friday against the Hawks, that rushing attack was limited to a 14-yard run by Wittrock. The senior signal caller had to look for his stable of receivers to keep the Panthers in their Class A, District 6 opener.

“Graham had a phenomenal night. Our receivers also stepped up. It was nice to spread the ball around.”

Besides connecting with Millikin on the final play of the night, Wittrock also found Millikin earlier in the night for a score as the senior receiver led the Panthers with five catches for 91 yards. Wittrock also found Brody Long and Petie Clubb for touchdown passes in the back-and-forth battle that saw the teams exchange four lead changes spread over all four quarters.

“I knew we could do this from the beginning of the season. We finally had to do it through the air,” Donovan said. “Graham has that ability to have nights like this one. It’s going to be huge for us down the road. (L-S) geared up to try to stop Quentin for Graham and the receivers stepping up is going to be a nice compliment for our team.”

Garrels still pounded the ball for 158 rushing yards, giving Pekin’s senior back 540 rushing yards through three games. The Hawks, who only rushed for 145 yards as a team against the Panthers, got some big passing plays of their own from quarterback Cale Van Wyk who completed 16 of 25 passes for 217 yards including 138 yards receiving and two scores from receiver Nathan Russell.

But Van Wyk and Russell never got the chance to answer the final pass thrown by Wittrock and caught by Millikin. The win moves No. 6 Pekin up two spots in the recent Class A poll with a perfect 3-0 record and an important winning start to district play heading to Pleasantville next week.

“We still have a lot of room for improvement in our special teams,” Donovan said. “We have some good games coming up. It’s nice to know there is still room for improvement for us.

“I’ve had some crazy finishes. That’s one of the crazier ones. It was pretty exciting.”





NO. 6 (A) PEKIN 34, LYNNVILLE-SULLY 27

L-S         6    13    0    8    —    27

Pekin        7    6    7    14    —    34

TEAM STATISTICS

                L-S        Pekin

Rushes-yards    36-145    49-223

Passing yards    217        137

Total Yards    362        360

Comp-Att-Int    16-25-1    7-12-0

Return Yards    1-80    7-97

Fumbles-Lost    1-1        0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Lynnville-Sully

RUSHING — Bailee Samson 11-41 yards, Cale Van Wyk 7-40, Caden Doll 9-32 yards, Daniel Zimmerman 7-31 yards, Brandon Dunsbergen 1-5 yards, T.J. Cunningham 1-(-4) yards, fumble.

PASSING — Van Wyk 16-25, 217 yards, 3 td, int.

RECEIVING — Nathan Russell 8-138, 2 td, Doll 2-48 yards, Cunningham 2-19 yards, Samson 1-8 yards, Zimmerman 2-7 yards, td, Dunsbergen 1-(-3) yards.

Pekin

RUSHING — Quentin Garrels 31-158 yards, Petie Clubb 8-34 yards, Graham Wittrock 9-30 yards, td, Eli Harper 1-1 yards.

PASSING — Wittrock 7-12, 137 yards, 4 td.

RECEIVING — Cade Millikin 5-91 yards, 2 td, Brody Long 3-35 yards, td, Harper 1-8 yards, Clubb 1-3 yards, td.

INTERCEPTIONS — Harper.

TACKLES — Eric Adam 11, Jared Bond 10, Austyn Vogel 9, sack, Clubb 6, Thomas Slaney 5, Kloby Allsup 4, Trenton Conger 3, forced fumble, Cory Loyd 3, fumble recovery, Nazareth Rambo 3, Tanner Adam 2, Long 2, Harper 2, Garrels, Colton Reighard, Tayte Schoff.