Panthers fall to Cardinals

The Berwick Panthers season ended Friday with a 50-14 loss to the E.D. White Cardinals.
E.D. White (7-3 overall, 3-1 in district) proved too much for Berwick (2-8, 1-3) as the Cardinals accumulated 390 yards rushing and 119 yards passing for 509 total yards. All seven of E.D. White’s scores were rushing touchdowns.
In the first quarter, the Panthers took advantage of a couple E.D. White 15-yard penalties that set up a 38-yard touchdown pass to Audwin Williams from Jeremy Boudreaux. The quarter ended with Berwick trailing just 8-7.
However, the Cardinals quickly started to pull away, scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter to give E.D. White a 29-7 lead at the half. E.D. White extended that lead to 43-7 by the end of the third quarter.
With 28 seconds left in the third quarter, Braden Billiot intercepted a pass, which set up a 10-yard touchdown pass to Williams from Boudreaux with 8:44 left in the game. The Panthers looked to close the gap even more after recovering an E.D. White fumble on the Cardinals’ subsequent possession.
Boudreaux ran the ball 51 yards into the end zone, but the play was called back because of a holding penalty. Two plays later, Boudreaux threw his lone interception of the game.
E.D. White drove down the field one more time and scored on a 5-yard run by Blake Grabert with 29 seconds remaining in the game.
“I’m real proud of our guys the way we’re heading in (to the playoffs),” E.D. White coach Chris Bergeron said.
Getting another district win was key for the Cardinals, Bergeron said.
E.D. White got off to a bit of a slow start during Friday’s game, he said.
“I don’t know if it was the lapse in time with senior night and those kind of things, but we’ve got to be able to handle those things,” Bergeron said.
“Once we got going in the second quarter a little bit, we kind of pulled away a little bit,” Bergeron said.
Going into the playoffs, the Cardinals now have to get into the mindset of “win or go home,” Bergeron said.
E.D. White’s Bradley Hamilton, who Bergeron said is battling leukemia, was able to dress for the first time this season Friday and get in the game for one play, Bergeron said. Bergeron was glad to be able to get him in the game.
Berwick coach Craig Brodie said this year’s senior class is special to him because it is the first class at Berwick he has coached since their freshmen year.
“We stayed together,” he said. “The 11 or 12 we have stuck it out through four years of really tough times.”
The seniors set the foundation for future Berwick teams, he said.
“The kids, they have always battled no matter what the odds were,” Brodie said.
Berwick just has too many young players with three sophomores, two juniors and a freshman starting on defense, Brodie said.
The amount of injuries the Panthers had required the team to change the game plan each week depending on who is available to play, Brodie said.
“We made adjustments every week, and they followed the plan really well,” Brodie said. “It’s just a matter of us getting a year older and learning more about how to play football.”
All of the Panthers’ seniors performed well this season, he said.
“I can’t really single anyone out,” Brodie said. “I had a new one come in, Shannon Theriot. And she was all business.”
Theriot led by example, worked hard and improved all season, he said.
“The guys watching a young lady work as hard as she did, she gained their respect,” Brodie said of the Panthers’ kicker. “It wasn’t a joking around type gimmick thing. She worked.”
The other seniors have been on the team for four years, Brodie said.
Senior linebacker Tre Matthews missed most of the season with an injury and came back the last couple games, Brodie said. Several other players also were injured at different points during the season, he said.
“It was like a never-ending spiral,” Brodie said. “I was proud of the way they came back.”
Throughout the season, the team got great support from the school administration, cheerleaders, dance teams, the band and the entire student body, Brodie said.
“They’re very kind to us,” he said. “They could easily turn their backs on us because we lose so often, but they’re always there encouraging us and cheering for us. It says a lot about the character of the kids and the parents and the community that they support our team no matter what happens, win or lose.”
Brodie mentioned that Berwick Junior High School has not lost a football game in three years. Once that group of eighth graders, freshmen and sophomores move into the upper class, there is no reason Berwick High School should not start seeing that success translate to the high school level, he said.
“There’s a lot (of) thinking involved when you don’t have a lot of experience,” Brodie said. “You’re just young and undersized. Time is going to make things better.”
The Panthers will get in the weight room during the offseason to get bigger, faster and stronger, he said.