Big plays, turnovers doom Panthers in 58-21 loss

Big plays and turnovers did in an injury-plagued Berwick Panthers team Friday night against the Abbeville Wildcats, which amassed nearly 400 yards rushing.
Abbeville stormed to a 58-21 win against Berwick after jumping out to a 26-0 lead and going into halftime up 32-7.
Berwick got on the scoreboard with a 22-yard touchdown catch by Audwin Williams with 1:29 remaining before halftime and then recovered an onside kick.
But an interception ruined Berwick’s chance to score again before the half.
“We gave up a lot of big plays,” Berwick coach Craig Brodie said. “We didn’t make tackles, and they got outside of us.”
With the exception of a 1-yard touchdown run for Abbeville’s first score of the game, all of the Wildcats scores came on plays of at least 35 yards.
The Wildcats accumulated 243 rushing yards in the first half alone, while Berwick had just 29 yards rushing the entire game.
Berwick freshman quarterback Mitchell Sanford started in place of injured sophomore quarterback Collin Louviere and threw for 126 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
The Panthers also lost fumbles twice in the game.
“We made a bunch of mistakes,” Brodie said. “We had a lot of turnovers. You can’t beat anybody turning the ball over like we did and giving up big plays on defense.”
The Panthers did have some bright spots, but their overall performance wasn’t good, Brodie said.
Berwick was without several injured players on its offensive line, and Brodie said he believes the Panthers will be able to be more consistent in their rushing game once they’re healthy on the line.
The team came back somewhat in the fourth quarter, closing the scoring gap to 46-21 due to Logan Angeron’s 84-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and another touchdown catch by Williams, this time from 49 yards.
The biggest lesson the Panthers can take away from Friday’s loss is to realize that the game is never out of reach, Brodie said.
Brodie said he believes success is yet to come for the Panthers.
“It’s going to happen,” Brodie said. “We’re just very, very young. We started five freshmen out there tonight and a bunch of sophomores and a bunch of older kids that really haven’t seen varsity action very much in their time in high school,” Brodie said.
“There’s going to be some good things in the future,” he said. “We’re just going through some growing pains, and it would be nice for us to come out on the winning side of it just for the confidence part of it. But we’re just not ready yet.”
Abbeville coach Gary Adkins said his team didn’t play well last week in a 44-7 loss to Kaplan, and, this week, the team focused on improving their attitude, being great teammates and fighting through adversity.
Adkins said he was “very proud” of the way the Wildcats played against Berwick.
“We knew they were going to throw the football,” Adkins said. “There was no doubt about that.”
“Our kids made plays. ... Put a lot of pressure on the quarterback,” Adkins said.
Adkins complimented Berwick’s “very talented” wide receivers who are tall and said they were “hard to manage.”
Still, Abbeville’s defense did a good job of handling those receivers, he said.
Friday’s win was big for Abbeville as it’s been a long time since the Wildcats have been 1-1 going into the third game of the year, Adkins said.
“It’s a stepping board to what’s left, and we feel like we’ve got some games left on there that we can take care of some people,” Adkins said.
With the loss, Berwick falls to 0-2 this season. The Panthers plan to regroup and prepare for their homecoming game this Friday against Varnado, Brodie said.

BHS AHS
First Downs 8 14
Rushing Yards 29 399
Passing Yards 126 80
Total Yards 155 479
A-C-HI 25-7-3 3-3-0
Penalty-yds. 5-40 2-30
Fumbles-lost 5-2 4-1
Punts-avg. 6-28.8 2-29

Berwick individual stats
Passing
Mitchell Sanford 7-25-3, 126 yds. 2 TDs

Receiving
Audwin Williams 6-127, 2 TDs; Joshua Carver 1-(-1)

Rushing
Darrin Robicheaux 5-22, Joshua Carver 7-18, Tanner Caldwell 1-14, Ryan Hover 1-(-1), Joshua Jones 1-(-1), Kenan Jones 1-(-2) and Mitchell Sanford 5-(-21)

Score by quarter
BHS 0 7 0 14 = 21
AHS 14 18 6 20 = 58

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
AHS: Kavon Brown 1-yard run (Billy Arceneaux kick) 5:58.

AHS: Matt Johnson 56-yard run (Arceneaux kick) 3:26

Second Quarter
AHS: Brown 51-yard run (kick failed) 9:00.

AHS: Johnson 35-yard run (kick failed) 2:44

AHS: Demarcus Collins 64-yard pass to Jose Pedroza (run failed)

BHS: Mitchell Sanford 22-yard pass to Audwin Williams (John McCorkle kick)

Third Quarter
AHS: Collins 49-yard run (kick blocked) 1:55

Fourth Quarter
AHS: Collins 37-yard run (Dominic Nunez run) 11:40

AHS: Johnson 71-yard run (kick failed) 6:40

AHS Braedan Williams 65-yard interception return (kick failed) 0:00

BHS: Logan Angeron 84-yard kick return (McCorkle kick) 10:50

BHS: Sanford 49-yard pass to Williams (McCorkle kick) 8:00