By JEREMY RAINES

Special to the Reporter

BIRMINGHAM – On a muggy night in Alabama, both Pelham and Carver (Birmingham) came into this matchup with four wins on each of their schedules but Pelham left with five after a 28-6 victory.

This is the first time the two teams have ever met. Pelham brought along with them a spark of momentum from winning both of their last games, the most recent being a big win over the Oak Mountain Eagles last week.

This 6A Region 5 game was a critical win for both teams for a chance at post-season play.

Pelham’s first drive was great one, but the Panthers would have to settle for a field goal attempt, which they missed.

The two teams swapped great defensive stances for all of the first quarter. Pelham quarterback Xavier Lankford gave the Panther offense a spark of offense with his legs, but he gave up a costly fumble on the very next play to give Carver the momentum.

Carver was the first to get onto the board building off of the momentum of the turnover. With 6:56 left in the first half, Carver’s strong run game put the Rams up 6-0.

The Rams then tried to fake a field goal for a 2-point conversion, but they were not successful

Not to be outdone, the Panther offense showcased a strong offensive run game of their own as Lankford made up for his earlier fumble putting the Panthers on the board with a scamper of his own.

The Panthers’ point-after was good giving them the lead going into halftime with only 1:08 left on the scoreboard.

After a strong display of defense by the Panthers to begin the second half, Pelham quickly struck again picking up right where they left off going into halftime.

Sophomore running back Dylan Peterson picked up a huge run that was followed with another short run by Peterson for a touchdown to extend the Panthers’ lead to 14-6 after the PAT.

Neither team scored again in the third quarter, but soon after the start of the fourth quarter, Pelham senior quarterback Matthew Rye connected with one of his receivers across the middle of the field with a large gain to set up the Panthers with a first-and-goal.

On the very next play, Rye kept the ball himself around the left side on the next play to grow the lead to 21-6 early in the fourth quarter.

One of the most impressive tackles of the night would come at the hands of the Pelham kicker Greg Blue when, on the ensuing kickoff, he made an impressive sideline tackle to save what would have been a kickoff return for a touchdown.

The story of the night was Pelham’s impressive defense. The Rams saw some early success both running and passing the ball in the first half, but the greedy and quick Panther defense proved to be too much for the Rams to handle.

The Panthers defense pressured and rushed the Ram’s offensive backfield on what seemed like every play to disrupt the offense before it ever got going.

With just 4 minutes left in the game, Pelham once again struck on the legs of Rye, as he rushed up the middle for a game ending score of 28-6 with the PAT.

The Panthers will look to feed off of their three-game winning streak momentum into this week as they play host to the region-leading and undefeated Jackson-Olin Mustangs.

The two teams split their head-to-head matchup at two wins apiece with the most recent game being played in 2015 where the Mustangs beat the Panthers 20-7. This win, however, would mean much more than just being a tiebreaker!