Injuries hamper winless Panthers

From staff report
Published: October 4, 2008

Injuries to key positions limited the Morehead Panthers, who could not get their offense going and dropped a 43-0 Triad 3-A Conference decision at Western Guilford Friday night.
The Panthers, playing with their third-string quarterback, were held to 51 total yards of offense — including minus-3 yards passing.
With the loss, Morehead dropped to 0-6 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
Western Guilford, which forced three Panther turnovers, improved its record to 3-4 overall and evened its Triad Conference mark at 1-1.
“I know Morehead had some injuries on offense and that makes it tough,” Western coach Chris Causey told the News & Record following the game. “We’ve been on that end where we’ve had guys injured. It limited their offense, but our guys played good defense.”
The troubles began for Morehead early on. On the team’s first possession, a fumble gave the Hornets good field position and two plays later quarterback Cory McKenna connected with Julius Hooks on a 47-yard touchdown reception.
Hooks, who finished with three catches for 86 yards, later added a 26-yard TD catch in the sec-ond quarter.
Western led 21-0 at halftime.
Special teams, which had haunted the Panthers earlier this season, reared its ugly head again as Brandon Easter returned a Morehead punt 40 yards for a score.
The Hornets rushed for 134 yards on 30 attempts — led by Easter, who had 14 carries for 47 yards and two scores. In the fourth quarter, he added a 3-yard TD run.
Cody Johnson of Western added four extra points.
Morehead was out gained 249-51 as the Hornets were 5 of 14 passing for 115 yards.
Each team had one interception, but the Panthers fumbled twice.
As if things could not get more difficult for the Panthers, they do. On Friday, Morehead heads to defending 3-AA state champion and unbeaten Greensboro Dudley (7-0, 2-0). Fresh off a 55-6 win over Rockingham Monday night, the Panthers hammered Bartlett Yancey, 41-0 Friday.
Western Guilford is off this week, but returns to action on Oct. 17 at Rockingham County (1-5, 0-2), which lost at (5-2, 2-0) Western Alamance 48-0 Friday.