West Park blanks Cordova, 35-0

West Park's varsity football team ended a two-week losing streak on Friday with a convincing 35-0 win at home against Cordova. The Panthers opened up Metro League play with a big win, as they evened their overall record at 3-3. West Park led 22-0 at the end of the first quarter and added two more touchdowns to their total, one in the second quarter and another in the third quarter. West Park did it with a new quarterback, sophomore Cole Tickle, who was called up last week during the team's bye week, as the varsity team's two quarterbacks, Drew Browning and Arjun Gill, have been battling injuries all season. Tickle played OK in his first varsity game, as he completed 7-of-16 passes for 160 yards and 1 touchdown. He also scored a rushing touchdown. Most importantly, he directed the team to a win, let alone led the offense to score five touchdowns. "In his first game, Cole did a good job staying within himself and he played a good game," West Park coach Jason Tenner said. "He had some nerves; you could tell he was nervous and he made some mistakes, but they're all correctable. For a young kid and first-time starter at the varsity level, he did a great job. I'm excited for him." For a young quarterback, it's important for a team to have a good run game and West Park had one Friday night, as they averaged nearly six yards per carry on their way to gaining 178 yards on the ground. Declan Shindelbower led the way with 72 yards on 12 carries and scored the first two touchdowns for the Panthers on runs of 2 and 5 yards. The team's third touchdown was an 88-yard pass from Tickle to Ronnie Eskridge and the two-point conversion run from Mason McLean gave the Panthers a 22-0 lead. In the second quarter, Tickle scored on a 21-yard run before the Panthers last score in the third quarter on a 13-yard pass from Gill to Tucker Bevans, another recent call-up from the junior varsity team. "It's good to get a win," Tenner said. "The defense got a shutout which is always nice. The defensive line played well. Griffin Bevans had an interception. Tristan Esquivel and Neaman Miller did a good job. Joey Fry was running around at middle linebacker, Jesiah Brewer … it was a nice effort from our entire defense." West Park's next game is at McClatchy (4-2 overall, 0-1 in league) on Friday night.