The Pride sent their fans home happy on homecoming night with a 43-28 win over Modesto High School on Oct. 22. Pitman was led by an aggressive defensive and a Stout running game.
The Pride had two turnovers in the game, one interception and one fumble. Their running attack led their offense and gained more than double the Panthers’ total yards 530-263. Pitman’s offense was led by running back Joey Stout who had 275 all purpose yards and three touchdowns.
“Joey was a big factor for us and he's our go-to guy, but some other guys just stepped up tonight. Stout stepped up tonight and Kenny Jackson stepped up tonight so we were really happy with that too,” said head coach Erica Reza.
The game started with a defensive stand by the Pride where they forced the Panthers to punt on their first possession. The offense took advantage of the stop and marched down the field for 13 plays and running back Kenny Jackson scored a touchdown from five yards out with 2:56 left in the first quarter.
The quarter ended with a fourth down stop by Pitman deep in Modesto territory. The Pride didn’t waste anytime and scored on the first play of the second quarter on an 88-yard touchdown run by Stout. They converted a two-point conversion to make the score 15-0.
After Pitman scored a touchdown on next possession, the Panthers were trying to climb back into the game. But Stout intercepted the ball and ran it to the two-yard line with 6:21 left in the half. Full back Jose Zamora punched it in the endzone the next play to give the Pride a commanding 29-0 lead.
Modesto wouldn’t be shut out in the half though, and scored a four-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds left to end the half.
Coming out of the half, Pitman was looking to extend their lead but quarterback Drew Walker was intercepted in Modesto territory. The Pride didn’t pay for that mistake though because linebacker Jorge Perez recovered a fumble three minutes later.
“Our defense played great tonight. Our offense put them in some tough situations and I was very pleased with how our defense played,” said Reza.
The Pride took advantage of the turnover and capped off a 11-play drive with a nine-yard touchdown run by Zamora to end the third quarter. The Panthers still had some fight in them, and scored a touchdown on their first possession of the fourth quarter to cut Pitman’s lead to 36-14.
Modesto surprised the Pride with an onside kick and recovered it. They took advantage of that and scored a touchdown to cut Pitman’s lead to two scores with 6:17 left in the game. The Pride kept the pressure on though and scored their final touchdown with 1:26 left with a 15-yard run by Stout.
Modesto still kept fighting and scored their third touchdown of the quarter on a 40-yard pass with 49 seconds left. The Pride were able to run out the rest of the clock though, and secured the 43-28 win.
Pitman ends their regular season on Oct. 29 with a home game against Downey. The Pride are currently 2-2 in the regular season and that game will determine if they have a winning record in league play.
“We’ve just got to execute. We have one more game left this season and we definitely want to finish off strong,” said Reza.
