MONTICELLO – There’s no place like home. 

The Panthers earned their second win of the season, both on their home turf, on Saturday afternoon against a Beacon Bulldogs team that could not seem to put anything together against the stifling Monticello defense. 

The Panthers struck early, returning the opening kickoff of the game for a 79-yard touchdown to set the tone.

After a strong opening defensive drive, the Panthers marched down the field on offense and Seth Jackson connected with Rafael Liciaga for the score, and it was quickly 14-0 in favor of Monticello.

The next drive, Rafael Liciaga picked off a Beacon pass, setting up the team for their second offensive drive of the first quarter with a 14 point lead already in their favor. Quenten Liciaga bounced off a handful of Bulldogs’ defenders and rumbled into the end zone with a 70-yard touchdown run. The Panthers converted the 2-point attempt and were up 22-0 before the end of the first quarter.

Following the kickoff, on Beacon’s play from Scrimmage, Monticello’s defense jumped into the backfield and stripped the handoff to recover a fumble to get the ball back again.

Monticello made it as far as the goal line before a fumble, ruled a touchback, gave Beacon the ball back at the 20.

With time winding down in the second quarter, Beacon took to the air to try to get some points on the ground, but the no-fly zone was in full effect as Rafael Liciaga picked off the Bulldogs for the second time in the quarter.

It did not take long for Monticello to return the ball to Beacon, the second fumble for Monticello’s Seth Jackson was recovered by the Bulldogs just before the break, but they were unable to capitalize.

Trailing by 22 at the start of the third quarter, the Bulldogs needed a spark. They got one on the kickoff return to start the second half, taking it to the house and kicking the extra point to make it 22-7.

Monticello answered quickly with a touchdown pass from Freshman QB Seth Jackson (his second of the day) to Xavean Mitchell for a 32-yard touchdown.

Monticello’s defense held Beacon yet again, and the Panthers marched down the field before turning the ball over with goal to go.

With 4:20 left in the game Rafael Liciaga caught a 6-yard touchdown pass to make it 34-7 in the fourth quarter. Liciaga left his stamp all over the game with big plays on both sides of the ball.

Beacon answered with a fourth quarter touchdown of their own and then recovered an onside kick, but ran out of time and Monticello finished a wire-to-wire victory 34-14.

“It came down to our execution today,” Panthers’ coach Arthur Johannes said after the win. “Today we showed who Monticello has the potential to be.”