CAMP POINT, Ill. — The weather may be cooling off a bit, but there is plenty of heat on the football field as it was the first football game of the year for many teams in the area on Friday night.

One of those teams getting started was the Camp Point Central Panthers, who started the season off strong with a 50-8 thrashing over the West Central Cougars.

The Panthers got the ball to start the game and it looked like the first drive wasn’t going to result in points after a couple of first downs. The Panthers lined up to punt, and they ran a fake punt instead completing a pass to Luke Ippensen for a first down.

Panthers head coach Brad Dixon saw an opportunity to go for it, and they took advantage of it.

“We line up in an empty punt every time with the opportunity to do a lot of different things,” Dixon said. “Our guys executed the fake, which was good.”

That trick play gave the Panthers offense some life resulting in a 17-yard touchdown run on the outside from Curtis Rigg. That would be his first of two touchdowns on the night.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” Rigg said. “I just tried to do whatever I could to help the team win.”

The Panthers converted the two-point conversion to grab an 8-0 lead with 6:41 left to go in the first quarter.

It would remain 8-0 for a few minutes, until the Cougars fumbled the ball and Kolin Bockhold recovered the loose ball. The Panthers would quickly capitalize with a 14-yard touchdown run by Jackson Fowler to extend the Panthers lead to 16-0 after the 2-pont conversion.

The Panthers defense would continue to dominate to give the Panthers offense chances.

“We did a good job of shutting down the run game,” Dixon said. “We made West Central’s offense one dimensional. We felt if we could stop the run and make them throw, we would be in a good spot.”

Central knew they would have some holes to fill after standout Ellijah Genebacher graduated and is now playing for Quincy University.

“Losing Elijah isn’t easy, but I thought our defense played really well tonight,” Rigg said. “We made the plays we needed to.”

That wasn’t the only area of the game the Panthers made an impact. With under one minute left, Bockhold blocked a Cougars punt setting the Panthers up at the Cougars one-yard line. Jasper Flesner would punch it in from one yard out, for his second touchdown of the night to give the Panthers a 30-0 halftime lead.

It was more of the same in the second half. It seemed like the Panthers defense got stronger as the night went on. Marco Rodriguez intercepted a pass two minutes into the second half, setting the Panthers up at the Cougars one-yard line. Flesner would score his third touchdown on the night to put the game out of reach.

The Panthers move to 1-0 on the season as they go on the road to play Greenfield-Northwestern on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m.

“Greenfield is a great rivalry,” Dixon said. “We’ve met each other in the playoffs, but haven’t in the regular season for a long time. They’ll be ready for us.”