South Medford running back Wes Boyd, shown in action last week, played an increased role to help power the Panthers against Roseburg.

There were too many Sheldon bodies in the way for South Medford to get its potent running attack going and not enough rest in between defensive series for the Panthers to offer a similar roadblock Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium.

The visiting Irish scored on their opening two possessions and never let South Medford get into any kind of an offensive groove to come away with a 27-0 triumph in South/Central Football Conference play.

The Panthers (4-2, 2-2 SCFC) were limited to 190 yards of total offense — just 118 on the ground after averaging 316 yards in that category — and couldn’t play the kind of game needed to slow the reigning conference champions.

“Sheldon was the kind of team that you have to play well against,” said Panthers head coach Bill Singler. “You can’t make mistakes and you’ve got to make plays when you have opportunities and score points, and that didn’t happen for us tonight.”

South Medford managed only three first downs in the first half, and the final one came at the buzzer on a 20-yard run by Ryder Scheid as Sheldon (4-2, 4-0) walked into the locker room ahead 21-0 on a pair of touchdown runs by quarterback Colby Parosa and another from tailback Mana Tuioti.

“I just thought we would play with a little bit more emotion and a little more bounce in our step,” said Singler. “I saw that a little bit more defensively, which was good, but I didn’t see it offensively.”

“But offensively, this was the worst week of practice we had so you could kind of see it coming,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s the mid-term blahs or maybe they’re feeling too good about themselves a little bit, but you try to appeal to them that we’re playing a different beast now. We kind of got what we deserved offensively based on how we practiced and how we approached the game mentally.”

Even though there were positive signs out of a defense that spent most of the first half on the field, senior linebacker Gio Livingston said there simply weren’t enough to throttle down a Sheldon team averaging 50 points in SCFC play.

“You can’t really call it good defense when there’s 21 points in the first half,” said Livingston, who was a wrecking ball nonetheless throughout the contest. “I definitely liked how we played in the second half with us holding them to six (points). It wasn’t to win the game but it definitely was for pride, and I feel like we really showed that.”

An interception and a nice return by Ajani Ingram gave South Medford’s sideline a jolt early in the second quarter but despite taking over at the Sheldon 35-yard line, the Panthers were unable to cash in with a score.

With big hits and tackles from safety Kameron Rague and pressure placed by lineman Makani Manuwai, who was making his return after a three-week absence, and linebackers Livingston, Caleb Morgan and Jacob Dalton, the Panthers appeared as if they may escape the first half with only a two-score deficit until Sheldon got a fourth-down conversion and scamper into the end zone by Parosa with 18.9 seconds remaining.

As the Irish had done on previous possessions, they used double-digit gains on simple screen passes by Parosa to maneuver into scoring position.

“We had a lot going on to defend with them,” said Livingston, “but that screen really killed us in the first half. We’ve got to work on getting on that.”

“We’re definitely also going to work on tackling,” he added of expected team improvements this week. “We’ve got to get lower, including myself, I tackle way too high. We need to work on shedding blocks and recognizing screens, but we’re still 4-2 and it’s still a good season.”

In the second half, South Medford’s defense rose to the occasion several times but still couldn’t keep Sheldon completely off the board as Rocco Graziano drilled field goals of 34 and 46 yards in the third quarter to build the final margin of victory.

“They were on the field a heckuva lot, no question,” Singler said of his defense, “and I thought they played good enough in the first half and gave us opportunities, but we couldn’t capitalize on them.”

“But Sheldon has done that to us before in the past,” he added. “They’re very athletic and they have good linemen and their linebackers run and fill and if you don’t get on blocks, they’re going to make plays, which they did.”

Rague led South Medford’s runners with 38 yards on 10 carries, while Mike Duclos made four catches for 40 yards.

Senior quarterback Colby Schwartz had a few opportunities for big plays but too often either saw his passes sail toward the wrong shoulder of downfield receivers or had passes batted down by Sheldon defenders at the last moment. He completed 9 of 19 passes for 72 yards and an end zone interception on the final drive of the game.

“The passing game showed some signs,” said Singler, “but we’ve still got to learn to locate the ball in proper places, which we’ve got to continually keep working on. But we’ve got a lot of football left in front of us. We’ve got three games left (in the regular season), starting with Grants Pass (next Friday), and it’s a big game and it’s homecoming and I hope these kids understand the importance of that.”

Sheldon 14 7 6 0 — 27

South Medford 0 0 0 0 — 0

S — Parosa 30 run (Graziano kick)

S — Tuioti 1 run (Graziano kick)

S — Parosa 2 run (Graziano kick)

S — FG Graziano 34

S — FG Graziano 46