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By Andrew Simonson | Shelby County Reporter

JEMISON — While the Jemison High School Panthers will have to wait another week to get back in the win column, they learned valuable lessons that coach Rishard Davis hopes will one day lead to success.

The Shelby County High School Wildcats defeated Jemison 42-6 on Sept. 13 at Jemison High School to earn their second straight win in Class 5A, Region 3 play.

“It was just a blur,” Davis said. “I thought we came in with a very good game plan, but we always say this a lot of times. Mike Tyson said it best when he said, ‘Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth.’ That’s exactly what happened to us tonight. One team came out playing, the other team didn’t, and it doesn’t matter if you do have a plan or not. Usually, the most aggressive team’s going to come out on top.”

Shelby County got off to a shaky start with two penalties backing them up to their 13-yard line. However, the offense brushed off the adversity and marched down the field, with Anthony Palmieri running it in for a touchdown from outside the red zone to take the 7-0 lead.

Once again, the Wildcats defense made statements early and often, starting with a fumble just three plays into Jemison’s opening drive.

After the recovery, Palmieri made it two touchdowns in four-and-a-half minutes as he scored on the first play of the drive to give Shelby County the 14-0 lead with 7:28 left in the first quarter.

Jemison’s offense couldn’t get going on its next drive, and the Wildcats relied on the run again once they took the ball over.

Tyson Duncan took the lead on the drive before Palmieri got his third rushing touchdown of the quarter off another long run, making the score 21-0 with 2:50 to go in the opening quarter.

The Panthers got a shot of life thanks to a long kickoff return, but the offense couldn’t capitalize, allowing Shelby County to reclaim the ball.

The Wildcats then struck again with 10:41 remaining in the second quarter, as Ryan Sipes reached the end zone before the offense missed the point after to leave the score at 27-0.

The scoring pace quieted down from there, but not before Shelby County’s Noah Trenholm left his mark on the game with a pair of big plays in the final minutes of the half.

He first found the end zone with 3:21 left, running it in from past the 10-yard line to make the lead 35-0.

Then, with just 12.3 seconds to go until halftime, Trenholm scored again from deep in Jemison territory to put the Wildcats up 42-0 going into the locker room.

From there, the teams settled into a rhythm in the second half, going the entire third quarter without scoring.

The Panthers did get on the scoreboard late with a touchdown in the fourth quarter. However, they missed the 2-point conversion, making the final score 42-6 Shelby County.

The Wildcats exclusively ran the ball this week and took 39 carries for 337 yards, including 309 yards in the first half alone. Palmieri led the way with 141 rushing yards off eight carries.

After the game, Davis said that the Wildcats didn’t do anything special but played hard on both sides of the ball, attacking the Panthers on the ground and bringing the pressure with their defensive line.

He hopes that this result shows his team what’s necessary to win games.

“Hopefully we can take from this game that you don’t have to be special or do anything special to win a game,” Davis said. “Shelby County didn’t do anything spectacular other than play hard-nosed football, and that wins games.

“I’ve had the pleasure of coaching teams just like that in the past and we weren’t special, but you weren’t going to outwork us or we weren’t going to let you out-physical us either. It all boils down to who wants it the most and who’s willing to sacrifice their personal gains, rather than just going out, just playing hard every snap and just doing what you’ve got to do to win the game.”

Davis hopes that Jemison eventually becomes a team like Shelby County that builds an effective identity and plays hard enough to execute that game plan to success.

“I just think they did almost kind of like what we’re trying to do here,” Davis said. “We’re trying to create an identity where we’re going to play our game no matter what, and no matter who we’re playing, and I think that’s what Shelby County did tonight, they just stuck with it.”

The Panthers will travel to Sipsey Valley to face the Bears on Sept. 20 in hopes of turning around their recent form.