PORTAL—Head coach Matt Smith stood on the sideline with his hand on his forehead, astonished. For the first time since 2014, his Portal Panthers football team won a game before October. The Panthers controlled the Treutlen County Vikings all night, winning 35-7 in their second game of the season.

“We had a lot to overcome after last week’s game,” Smith said. “We had a good week of practice and we had success early.”

It was a completely revitalized first drive for the Panthers who suffered a 40-6 loss to Warren County last week. The two swing punch from junior backs Brian Ware and Noah Adams was unstoppable. Ware would go to the outside for a four or five yard gain and Adams blundered down the middle to pick up the first down. On a second and 10 from the 31 yard line, Ware took the ball to the right side and was able to create the space to deliver the first points of the night.

After an eight yard drive from the Vikings stalled out, Adams and Ware went back to work making quick work of the Treutlen defensive line. Just four plays later, Ware was celebrating in the end zone with 79 yards already in his pocket.

Everything was clicking for the Panthers on all sides of the ball. Up two touchdowns, the home team didn’t look back.

“The kids got excited and they began to play hard,” Smith said.

On offense, defense and special teams, Portal was playing with a sense of confidence that filled the coaching staff and the Panther faithful with pride. Even when the offense began to slow down, the defense only let the Vikings’ offense into Panther territory once in the first half. A goal line touchdown run from the 10 for Ware gave the Panthers a 21-0 lead heading into halftime.

With just a three score lead, everyone on the home side held their breath as Ware went down with an injured shoulder after an 11 yard run to open the half. The next play, Adams went down with a hurt knee and things looked bleak for the Panthers as they were forced to punt on a fourth and 11.

An obvious hurting Ware went out to punt the ball and it went about 40 yards, but Treutlen’s Kamron Jordan fumbled the ball into a blue and white swarm setting the Panthers up on the 20 yard line. The next play senior quarterback Connor Washington pressed the ball to the outside and swiftly ran into the end zone for his first touchdown of the night.

“We haven’t had a lot of success the last couple years win-loss wise, so to get out like that just gives the kids confidence,” Smith said. “We had to learn to calm down and play with composure.”

A Treutlen interception on the next series set Washington up for the final score of the night. The Vikings were finally able to break the plane with a running clock in the fourth quarter on a fade route to the left.

It was an outstanding performance from a program that was almost nonexistent just a week before. Going forward, Smith wants to make sure his team remains confident and gets healthy in this upcoming bye week.

“I’m glad the bye week comes when it comes so we can focus on fundamentals and get healthy,” Smith said. “We just keep preaching about attitude and effort and it worked out tonight.”