Providence High’s defense dominates Olympic, gets Panthers 1 game away from league title
The last time there was high school football in North Carolina, way back in the fall and winter of 2019, the Providence High Panthers won three games.
But after dominating Olympic at home Thursday, the Panthers are unbeaten and one game away from the SoMECK conference championship.
The Panthers put on a defensive clinic in a 20-0 win over previously unbeaten Olympic Thursday night.
Providence (6-0) denied the Trojans (5-1) an outright SoMECK conference championship and set up a league championship at Ardrey Kell (5-0) next week. That game will determine the league champion.
And to beat Providence, Ardrey Kell will need to figure out how to move the ball.
Providence has allowed 19 points all season and now has three shutouts. Olympic, which had been averaging nearly 40 points per game, had negative yardage in the second half.
For the game, Providence allowed minus 1 yard passing and 74 yards rushing. The Panthers got 117 yards rushing from Jamar Price, 86 yards passing and a touchdown from QB Holland Stallings and Eli Watson led that staunch defense.
Watson and that defense kept giving the offense short fields and Providence dominated the line of scrimmage and time of possession. Olympic’s star tailback Cameron Smith, a senior heading to Navy, had 15 carries for 59 yards, but nearly all of it was in the first half.
Providence, which 237 total yards of offense, forced two fumbles, recovered both, had an interception and had multiple sacks.
Olympic 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Providence 0 10 0 10 -- 20
P: FG Eddie Czaplicki 31
P: Anthony Tandoh 13 pass from Holland Stallings (Czaplicki kick)
P: FG Czaplicki 33
P: Nathan Hauduk 4 run (Czaplicki kick)
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 9:04 PM.
