The ProwlerDec. 6, 2012 13sports

Inexperience plagues team

Senior punter Grant Aasen sends off one of his eight punts for a total of 257 yards against North Cobb. Aasen averaged 30 yards per punt. Karson Mizell/Staff

Continued from page 12team, the Panthers had no choice but to pick up the Wol-verines, Phillips said. The Panthers had their only shutout of the season against Mt. Zion, 46-0. The Panthers would play them again as their season ender, allowing the seniors to go out on a positive note with a 34-7 victory. After a disappointing two-game losing streak, the Panthers went into a bye week, only to face the cross-town rival McIntosh the next week. The Panthers suffered a devastating loss to the Chiefs, 30-13, the first in school his-tory. The Chiefs still trail The Mill in the rivalry, 15-1. “We were pretty embar-rassed,” junior linebacker Luke Ossanna said,“ but you just have to keep pushing forward and forget the game.” The Panthers went on to lose to Northgate 27-10 and were shutout by Whitewater 42-0. This was the first shutout in a regular season game since falling to Brookwood 30-0 on Aug. 30, 2003. “We went into the game knowing we had to be perfect on both sides,” Phillips said. “We just got overwhelmed on

offense.” The special teams were a positive point for the Panthers as senior kickers Daniel Rorick and Grant Aasen put up con-sistent numbers throughout the season. Rorick broke a Starr’s Mill record for most field goals in a season with ten. The previ-ous record of eight was held by Evan Greason (’99), Keegan Hanie (’05), and Jonathan Whitlow (’06). Aasen averaged 30 yards per punt with his best coming from a 264 yard performance against Whitewater, where he averaged 37.7 yards per punt. The Panthers added young talent throughout the season with players like sophomore linebacker Luke Schoolcraft and sophomore defensive back Mitch Pattison. “We played a lot of under-classman this year on both sides of the ball,” Phillips said. “We’ve never done that before.” As for the next season, Phil-lips said he plans on focusing on winter workouts and getting prepared for spring football. “We’re going to be getting bigger, faster, and stronger,” Phillips said.