Panthers ride defense, running game to win over Legacy

Darwin Rost knew Legacy’s football team wasn’t going to be some pushover opponent.

The Palo Verde coach consciously kept his players fired up all week, telling them they needed a win Thursday for home-field advantage in the upcoming Sunset Region playoffs.

The No. 7 Panthers went to their dependable ground game and stout defense to knock off the host Longhorns, 27-12, in a Southwest League matchup.

“If you look at their schedule, they didn’t get beat by anybody that’s not any good,” Rost said. “Their five losses were against legit teams … We were playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs tonight, and now we’ve got it. That was something the kids were shooting for and we accomplished that by beating them.”

Palo Verde’s defense held Legacy speedster DeMichael Walker to 18 rushing yards and forced five turnovers, including three fumbles and two interceptions. The Panthers gave up 126 total yards to Legacy.

Graeson Vereen, who also played quarterback, intercepted a pass at the Longhorns’ 5-yard line with 2 minutes, 5 seconds left in the second quarter to set up Jaren Campbell’s 5-yard touchdown run with 27 seconds left in the half. On Legacy’s next possession, Jordan Bruner intercepted an intended screen pass and returned it 60 yards for a TD as time expired to give the Panthers a 20-6 lead at halftime.

“We were really prepared for these guys,” Rost said. “They’ve got great team speed and I thought we did a great job defensively.”

Campbell carried the ball 22 times for 119 yards and a TD for Palo Verde (6-2, 3-0 Southwest), which finished with 239 rushing yards.

“We’ve been kind of (working him) for two years now,” Rost said. “He had some nice, hard runs for us tonight.”

Vereen finished 3 of 7 for 42 yards and two touchdowns for the Panthers, who got 51 yards on 12 carries from Ty Fuller. Legacy got on the scoreboard first with a 2-yard TD run by Kourde Roberts with 9:15 left in the first quarter. But Vereen hit Jamell Garcia-Williams on a 10-yard TD pass with 8:48 to go in the second quarter, and the Panthers wouldn’t trail again. Vereen added a 23-yard TD pass to Isaac Woods on a ball tipped by a defender with 4:08 left in the third quarter.

“Graeson was warmed up because he was playing defense too,” Rost said. “He’s a gamer. He’s also a really good basketball player too.”

Legacy’s Roberts added three catches for 49 yards. Quarterback Tanoa Alapati was 8 of 13 for 92 yards and an interception for the Longhorns, who got four catches and 46 yards from D’Angelo Lindsey.

Justin Whitehead had a 70-yard kickoff return for a TD, and Kevion Johnson added an interception for the Longhorns (2-6, 1-2).