'Playoff atmosphere': Balanced Pana thrives in big victory over state-ranked North Mac

PANA — North Mac’s defense had dominated through its first seven weeks in its inaugural season in the South Central Conference. But Friday, it was Pana’s defense in command.

Pana intercepted North Mac quarterback Kaden Brown three times and senior quarterback Max Lynch totaled 455 yards of offense as the host Panthers beat the visiting Panthers 42-21 on Brummett Field.

“We needed that. I think we had a great game plan going in and I think we put it all together every single play, every snap, everything was clicking,” said Pana senior Ace Armstrong, who caught three passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns from Lynch.

Both teams enter Week 9 at 7-1 with a shot at either a shared SCC championship or outright. Pana entertains Carlinville (5-3), which has won five in a row. North Mac will face Staunton, which got its first win of the season on Friday.

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“We knew this was going to be a playoff atmosphere,” North Mac coach Patrick Bowman said. “We’ve had a couple of games that we jumped out early and we knew this was going to be a battle and hats off to Pana; they were ready to go. They got a couple of big plays and we never bounced back from it.”

Going vertical

Pana prepared for Friday’s game by looking at a Sangamo Conference game film between Williamsville and North Mac. North Mac left that conference for the SCC after the 2021-22 school year.

“The passing game tonight, there was a focus of stretching that team vertical,” Pana coach Trevor Higgins said. “They play a Cover 3 (defense) so we wanted to stretch them vertical which is what Williamsville did.”

Higgins said this was his quarterback’s most well-rounded offensive game this season. Much of the damage Lynch has inflicted has been on the ground: he entered the game with 1,508 yards rushing (215.4 per game) and 19 touchdowns on 108 carries. In the air, he had completed 52 of 105 attempts for 718 yards, seven TDs and one INT.

“Max’s biggest issue is he doesn’t want to throw interceptions so sometimes he’s scared to throw the ball,” Higgins said. “But when you get him settled — and we worked on it all week — and when he put the ball where it needed to be (he was successful). Our receivers did a great job catching the ball and we haven’t been great at that in some of these games previous too.”

Lynch, a Class 2A all-state selection by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association a year ago, said he and the receivers are getting on the same page.

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“We had a talk about sitting in the open field, finding gaps where we can ... not stopping our routes and Ace did a great job of that tonight,” Lynch said. “I remember Carter (Beyers) sat in the middle of the field, I hit him, we got (16) yards. Haden (Stark) ran a good post route and if it was a better ball, it’s a touchdown.”

Immediately after North Mac quarterback Kaden Brown scampered in for a 5-yard touchdown with 9 minutes, 40 seconds left in the second half, Lynch uncorked a ball 50 yards in the air as he was pummeled and found Armstrong for an 80-yard touchdown. That untied the game 32 seconds after North Mac knotted it at 7-7.

With 1:39 left in the half, Pana running back Monte Weddle had a 1-yard TD run and Armstrong scored on a double-reverse handoff on the two-point conversion to give Pana a 22-15 lead.

That was the first time any team had scored more than 14 points against North Mac, which came into Friday ranked No. 4 in the latest Associated Press Class 2A poll.

Pana wasn’t done

Brown threw his first interception from the Pana 47-yard line and grabbed by Anderson at the 16. Lynch found Beyers once and Stark twice before a North Mac pass interference penalty gave Pana a first-and-10 from the North Mac 24 with just enough time for one last play. For the second time, he found Armstrong and Pana entered halftime leading 29-15.

“It felt like a third-round playoff game: the emotions ran high, the intensity was there, a hard-hitting football game,” Higgins said, “but our guys executed. Every week we keep getting better and better and that’s all you can ask for.”

Beyers and Evan Swisher intercepted Brown in the second half. Lynch outraced the North Mac defense for a 50-yard touchdown one play after Beyers picked it off late in the third quarter. Swisher grabbed Brown’s third INT early in the fourth. Seven plays later, Lynch all but sealed Pana’s win with an 8-yard TD run.

“We had some miscues there and they were nobody’s fault — heck, I take the blame for those,” Bowman said. “They made the big plays when they had to and we did not. In a big game like this, you have to win the turnover battle.”

Pana had intercepted just two passes through the first seven games.

Swisher’s comeback

Swisher opened the fourth quarter with a tackle for loss of North Mac’s Zane Hogan before picking an errant pass out of the air on the next play.

It was quite the emotional lift for Pana’s senior fullback and middle linebacker. He missed the second quarter after sustaining an arm injury late in the first quarter at the end of a 1-yard run. He let out a pained yell and was immediately attended to by Pana trainer Drew Casner.

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“When I first went down, I (thought) I might be done and I was really concerned but Drew worked on me and he did his thing,” Swisher said. “I love that guy.”

“When he’s laying there — and you can hear him screaming in pain — I go out there, (Swisher) looks at me and he says, ‘I think I broke it,’” Higgins said. “Our trainer is one of the best in the area and Drew Casner is working on him and he gets it to the point where it’s painful but he can have full movement. For the kid to come out with that kind of pain and still play, it shows the true heart and character he has and that’s all 13 of our seniors right now.”

All-state battle

North Mac senior lineman Cooper Starks was also an IHSFCA all-state pick in 2021. The 6-foot-5, 320-pound Vanderbilt commit physically stood out.

Not only did the 6-0, 165-pound Lynch get tackled by Starks, but Lynch found himself directly underneath Starks.

How did that feel?

“It was like a huge boulder just fell on me and I didn’t know how to react,” Lynch said with a smile. “I was wondering: ‘What just hit me?’ Starks is helping me up and he told me sorry so I was all right with it.”

Lynch said he couldn’t have been more impressed with Starks in their first matchup.

“He’s a cool dude. With someone that’s going to play football in the (Southeastern Conference) from central Illinois, you think they’d be a really cocky person, think they’re the best but no,” Lynch said. “He’s helping people up, he’s telling the other team good job, he’s telling his own teammates good job. He’s a cool guy and a nice person.”

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA football: Pana football uses balance in win over North Mac