By: Scott Purks
October 06, 2011
Tampa Tribune

It was far from perfect, but Plant’s victory over Wharton sent a message to the rest of Class 8A-District 6: The Panthers’ passing game, which had been relatively tame compared to recent years, has plenty of life in it. Panthers quarterback James Few — who in his first four games had passed for an average of 128 yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions — lit up Wharton for a good portion of the game.

By halftime, Few had completed 11-of-15 passes for 265 yards and touchdowns of 27, 30, 41 and 80 yards. By game’s end, even after some sputtering in the second half, Few had thrown for 290 yards. Wesley Bullock hauled in two of Few’s strikes for touchdowns of  30 and 80 yards and Austin Aikens had a 41-yard scoring connection with the senior quarterback. Panthers tight end Chase Mighell opened the scoring for Plant with a 27-yard reception from Few and fullback Maronte Gilbert made it 14-0 when he plowed in to the end zone from three yards out. Despite the success, Plant did make its share of mistakes, including 11 penalties for 90 yards, blowing a couple of defensive coverages, giving up two long kickoff returns, throwing an interception and allowing three sacks.

The night’s brightest highlights for Wharton (1-4, 0-1) came mostly on the legs of Darius Page, who had a 60-yard touchdown run, caught a 67-yard touchdown pass and bulled in from 1 yard for another touchdown.

	1	2	3	4	OT	FINAL
Wharton	0	6	6	7	––	19
Plant	21	13	3	0	––	37

Scoring:
P – Mighell 27 pass from Few (Van Aman kick)
P – Gilbert 3 run (Van Aman kick)
P - Aikens 41 pass from Few (Van Aman kick)
W – Page 60 run (kick failed)
P – Bullock 80 pass from Few (Van Aman kick)
P – Bullock 30 pass from Few (kick failed)
P – Few 39 FG
W – Page 1 run (pass failed)
W – Page 67 pass from Litton (Kinney kick)

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