PORTAL — After trading turnovers with the Montgomery County High School Eagles (0-4) in the opening seconds of the game, the Portal Panthers (2-3) never looked back and rushed their way to their first home victory behind senior running back Trai Gadson 29-6.
    Portal's wishbone attack racked up 201 yards on the ground for night with Gadson making up over half of the ground assault with 110 yards and three touchdowns.
    In the first, Gadson put the Panthers on the goal line with a 28-yard run on third and five. A two-yard run up the gut was followed by Lockley’s PAT put the Panthers up 7-0. 
    On the Eagles next possession, the Panthers didn’t allow Montgomery’s offense to smell a first down and forced a punt which was returned 60-yards by senior Cory Walker. This set up a four-yard dive for Gadson and Portal jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first.
    Things didn’t get any better for the Eagles in the second quarter as a bad snap on a punt was recovered by Montgomery in the end zone resulting in a safety.
    The ensuing drive for the Panthers resulted in a gutsy fourth down call which resulted in a 27-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Evan Street to reciever Brandon Lively. Kicker Joseph Lockley put the point after through the uprights but suffered a high ankle sprain and left the game after colliding with a Montgomery defender on the play.
    Head coach David NeSmith stressed the importance of his underclassman stepping up as the Panthers continue to suffer from injury this year.
    “We just have to continue to get our young kids ready, because they’re the ones having to step up and get in there to play right now,” said NeSmith.
    Portal closed out the half leading 23-0, dominating the game on both sides of the ball.
    In the second half, the Panther offense tacked on one more score, 29-0, and put the game out of reach for the Eagles.
    A late 70-yard-punt return from Montgomery’s Kendel Shen Holsten put the Eagles on the board with 24.6 seconds left in the game.
    “We played good. We have a lot of things we have to work on though. … We have to learn to finish a football game strong. … We’re still in a leaning stage, but we’re starting to do some good things and starting to make things happen. We’re still making way to many mistakes. If we plan to beat a good football team down the road, we can’t make the mistakes we made tonight,” said NeSmith.
    For the Eagles head coach Gregg Busby said the mental mistakes of the year continued.  With false start penalties plaguing the offense all night, the Eagles were never able to piece a complete drive together.
    “It seems we start every drive first and fifteen, second and fifteen," Busby said. "We as coaches, and us as a team, have a lot of work to do. We’ve worked pretty hard these past two weeks, but something’s missing and we just have to figure out what it is. I think right now we lack leadership. We’ve got to do something.”
    Portal is off next week, giving the team time to rest their injured.