COLUMBUS - With the help of three John Craig Patterson interceptions, the Pillow Academy defense took the air out of Heritage Academy's passing attack.
The Mustang defense held the Patriots to just 88 yards passing en route to a 27-7 victory here Friday night in a key North AAA conference matchup.
"Heritage played hard all the way, and it was a tough game. A real physical game," Pillow head coach Riley Myers said. "We did a good job of hitting.
"I am tickled with the way we played, especially on defense."
The Mustangs, ranked No. 5 in the statewide academy AAA poll, improve to 4-2 overall, 3-1 in the league standings - a half-game ahead of Washington School in the fight for second place. Jackson Academy is in first at 3-0.
"Being 3-1 in the conference is huge right now, but we've still got some work left to do," Myers said.
Next the Mustangs take a break from conference play by hosting No. 3 Jackson Prep, which is 4-2 after blasting Presbyterian Christian 39-7 Friday.
Patterson set up a touchdown with an interception and returned his third one for a touchdown. The 5-foot-10, 152-pound sophomore cornerback also had three tackles and a pass breakup despite suffering a dislocated finger early in the contest.
"He just had a monster game for us," Myers said.
"Our defensive front had a real good game and put pressure on the quarterback. He didn't have a real strong arm, so we were able to get some interceptions," Patterson said.
Patterson's first pickoff led to Pillow's first touchdown - a 30-yard scamper by senior Bryce Daves, his team-high sixth of the season. Patterson's PAT kick made it 7-0.
Heritage, which came in riding high after an upset win over Washington last week, drove to the Pillow 12-yard line late in the first quarter. After a motion penalty on a fourth-and-1 play where the Patriots were apparently going for it, they were forced to try a 33-yard field goal attempt. It sailed wide left.
The Mustangs took over at the Heritage 20 and overcame two holding penalties to complete an 80-yard TD drive.
Sophomore running back Lewis Buford had a big run on third-and-20 to keep the drive alive.
Senior quarterback Louis Coleman capped the drive on a 15-yard keeper off the option. Patterson's PAT kick made it 14-0 with 8:49 left in the second quarter.
The Mustangs led 14-0 at the half and had a couple of more scoring opportunities wiped out by penalties, as they were flagged six times in the first two quarters for 62 yards.
Heritage was penalized three times for 15 yards.
Pillow opened the second half with a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive for a 21-0 lead. Daves and Buford did most of the work on the ground, and Coleman capped it with a 3-yard scoring strike to his favorite target, senior Bill Gulledge. The 5-foot-9, 150-pound wide receiver has caught all three of Coleman's TD passes this season.
Patterson picked off his second pass on Heritage's next possession - giving the offense the ball at the home team's 42.
The Mustangs drove to the Patriots' 13 before going backwards to the 34 and turning the ball over on downs.
Patterson then came up with his third interception and returned it 39 yards for a score to put the game away late in the third quarter.
"It was a 5-yard out route, and I just jumped in front of it and took off," Patterson said.
The Mustang defense was primed for a second straight shutout, but a turnover at the PA 36 in the fourth quarter led to Heritage's lone touchdown, an 11-yard pass from Graham Wise to Tyler James with 4:14 left to play.
Statistically, it was the best outing of the season for the PA defense, allowing a season-low 125 total yards. The Patriots rushed the ball 15 times for just 37 yards.
"Our defense did a very good job," Myers said. "We tackled much better and did so much better in our base coverage.
"They had only 37 rushing yards and about 20 of that came on their first possession when they threw a new formation on us."
"We totally shut their running game down, and our defensive backs really stepped it up, especially John Craig Patterson," said senior linebacker Robert Rhyne Howard, who had five solo tackles.
Senior defensive back Adam Ellis had six total tackles, including one for a loss.
Senior defensive end Hunter Box had two tackles behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of 11 yards, and sophomore linebacker Michael Lary had a stop for minus-6 yards.
Coleman led the offensive charge with two TDs, one rushing and one passing. He completed 7 of 13 passes for 82 yards and had no interceptions.
Thanks to another solid outing from the offensive line of Ryan Taylor, Drew Hull, Jason Moss, Adron Belk and Howard, the Mustangs churned out 280 yards on the ground on 41 carries. The rushing output was 60 yards better than they averaged in their first five games.
Daves paced the ground attack with 84 yards on 11 carries, giving him a team-high 453 yards on the season.
Buford added 76 yards on 11 carries, and senior Ryan Burt had 45 yards on six carries.
