SSC's Austin Collier rushed for 200 yards and passed for 133 to lead the Panthers past Pinconning.
Pinny's Seth Haas takes a handoff from quarterback Steven Moore at Standish-Sterling.
Linda Eyer
Standish-Sterling's Trent Fouchey tries to escape a pair of Pinconning defenders during Friday's contest.

STANDISH-STERLING - Oct. 3, 2008 - Standish-Sterling took care of business Friday, toppling rival Pinconning 26-16 to stay unbeaten and clinch a playoff spot.

Bigger tasks loom for the Panthers, though, and despite a huge performance from quarterback Austin Collier, who rushed for 200 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries, it wasn't a perfect performance for the Panthers.

"We still have a long way to go," said SSC coach Paul Walderzak, whose team was penalized 14 times for 144 yards. "We made too many mistakes and penalties slowed us down on both sides of the ball.

"I hope some of this was due to homecoming distractions, but we will keep working on these things and keep improving."

Pinny coach Chip Kleinhans said part of what they had worked on the previous week was taking advantage of the Panthers' aggressive defense by using hard counts at the line of scrimmage, which goaded SSC into a number of offsides penalties.

"We worked very hard on that," Kleinhans said. "We wanted to get them to jump offsides, and that at least worked.

"But we couldn't get much else going offensively until late in the second half. We don't have one guy that can dominate like (Collier), but we all have to play well as a team. We had guys who played well last week against Whittemore that didn't this time, and we had guys play well this week that didn't play as well last week. To win these games we need everyone to play well at the same time."

The Panthers built a 26-0 lead before Pinny fought back in the third and fourth quarters. Collier scored on a 46-yard run midway through the second quarter, then made it 12-0 with a 3-yard run 15 seconds before the half.

He added scoring runs of 34 and four yards in the third quarter before the Spartans cut into the lead on a pair of Nick Schultz touchdown runs of eight and two yards.

"This was a good win," Walderzak said. "Pinconning played us tough and made us earn most of what we got on the night."

Collier finished 9-of-14 passing for 133 yards, with Mark Lorence catching seven balls for 105 yards.

Zach Neid had 11 tackles, Adam Gulvas added nine, Josh Augustine had seven and Alex Schmidt added six to lead the Panthers' defense, which forced three turnovers.

John Glenn (6-0, 3-0 NEMC) hosts the Panthers (6-0, 3-0) in the game that will determine the league title Friday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m. The Bobcats defeated Tawas 35-19 on Friday, building a 28-0 halftime lead.

The Spartans (2-4, 1-2) host Ogemaw Heights for homecoming on Friday.

"We're not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet," Kleinhans said. "If we can get a win over Ogemaw, and a win over (currently unbeaten) Goodrich, then we may be in a position to make it on points. We knew we'd have our hands full (at Standish) and unfortunately we didn't get it done. If we're going to win this week, we have to be hitting on all cylinders."