{"id":294227,"date":"2026-09-26T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/294227\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T04:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:16:12","slug":"rockridge-fueled-by-third-quarter-turnover-hands-erie-prophetstown-first-loss-in-matchup-of-ranked-teams-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/294227\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockridge, fueled by third-quarter turnover, hands Erie-Prophetstown first loss in matchup of ranked teams \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flying high through the first half of the prep football season, the Erie-Prophetstown Panthers<\/a> have bigger goals in sight.<\/p>\n

With the IHSA state playoffs now less than a month away, Erie-Prophetstown began a key stretch in its bid for the Three Rivers Conference\u2019s Rock Division championship Friday night.<\/p>\n

Taking on Rockridge in the first of two matchups with fellow Class 2A state-ranked clubs in a three-week span, the eighth-ranked Panthers saw a third-quarter turnover snowball into their first loss of the campaign, a 27-14 setback.<\/p>\n

While the loss drops E-P into a tie for second place in the Three Rivers Rock with the Rockets \u2013 both teams are now 5-1 and 2-1 in conference play \u2013 the goals remain the same for the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne game is not going to define our season, whether we won or lost [Friday],\u201d Erie-Prophetstown coach Tyler Whitebread said. \u201cBut football is a game of momentum, and we couldn\u2019t steal it back. Rockridge definitely outplayed us in the second half in all areas, which is disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving from their 18-yard line to the Rockets\u2019 37 to open the second half, the tide turned for the Panthers when Evan Steimle\u2019s pass on fourth and eight was tipped and intercepted by Rockridge\u2019s Chase Wheatley.<\/p>\n

That turnover led to the go-ahead score for the Rockets, a two-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Cullen Schwigen with 2:35 left in the third quarter. Classmate Thomas Sowards added a 16-yard TD run nearly two minutes into the fourth period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out in the third quarter and moved the ball well, and had some first downs,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cBut a couple of passes got away from us, and they were in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steimle completed six of 17 passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns in addition to rushing for 62 yards on 17 carries to pace the Erie-Prophetstown attack.<\/p>\n

Things do not get any easier for the Panthers after Friday night. In addition to taking on perennial rival and division leader Riverdale (a 40-7 winner over Mercer County on Friday) in two weeks, they host MerCo next Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMercer County is a heckuva team, and they\u2019ve been playing some good football,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to learn from our mistakes tonight, and come out next week and bring it against Mercer County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fueling the Rockets in their bounce-back win after last Friday\u2019s 26-7 loss to Riverdale were Sowards (207 yards and two TDs on 24 carries) and Schwigen (111 yards, one TD on 17 carries; 7 of 16 passing for 99 yards and a touchdown).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat interception definitely flipped the script,\u201d Schwigen said. \u201cWe wanted to use last week as fuel. Fuel is expensive right now, so it really paid off tonight. We haven\u2019t been playing our best football the last five weeks, so it was good to see a great outcome tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sowards, it was his second game of 200 or more yards this season; he cracked that mark four weeks ago in a 56-8 win over Monmouth-Roseville.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to get above 200 again,\u201d Soward said. \u201cWe had a loss last week, but a loss can be good. I\u2019d rather we get it now than go undefeated and lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the first quarter, Rockridge dominated defensively, holding the Panthers to just 17 total yards and no first downs in that span. With 33 seconds left in the period, the Rockets struck first when Schwigen connected with Daniel Bell on a 48-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0. <\/p>\n

The E-P offense then unlimbered in the second quarter, with the Panthers\u2019 initial first down of the night coming when Steimle hit Caleb Brown with a short pass. Brown then weaved through the Rockridge secondary en route to a 70-yard touchdown, and Steimle\u2019s PAT kick knotted the score at 7-7.<\/p>\n

It was a key stop by the Erie-Prophetstown defense that set up the tying score. The Rockets rolled the dice on a fourth and nine from the E-P 36-yard line, but Schwigen\u2019s pass was incomplete.<\/p>\n

With 4:16 left before halftime, the Panthers converted on their own fourth down situation as Steimle scrambled, rolled out and launched a heave that found Lane Decker (four receptions for 58 yards) in the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown and a 14-7 E-P lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cRockridge is a team that\u2019s going to get their plays; Schwigen is a great quarterback and Coach (Sam) Graves calls a heckuva game,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cBut we were pretty happy with our first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockridge was not done, however. With 41 seconds left before halftime, Sowards ripped off a 33-yard touchdown run and Morales booted the extra point to forge a 14-14 deadlock at intermission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat last touchdown before halftime, that really hurt,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cHe (Sowards) is also a good running back, but we had opportunities to tackle him. You\u2019ve got to make those plays.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flying high through the first half of the prep football season, the Erie-Prophetstown Panthers have bigger goals in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,982,6341,10988,304,983],"class_list":["post-294227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-prophetstown-preps","tag-fnd-sauk-valley","tag-friday-night-drive-front-headlines","tag-high-school-football","tag-sauk-valley-front-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}