BEAUMONT — Port Neches-Groves coach Brandon Faircloth said in an interview earlier this week that he is not too big a fan of games held on Saturday afternoons.

The reason is simple: teams spend all year being on a certain schedule with practices and games, and to throw in a Saturday game late in the year is a very tough adjustment.

PNG shook off some rust and defeated Ozen 28-13 Saturday at the Thomas Center. The rust didn’t come early for the Indians; it came in the last three quarters after PNG had built a 21-0 lead.

The Indians got three touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Roschon Johnson in the first 12 minutes of the game. PNG had 255 yards in the first quarter, but by the end of it Johnson threw for 207 yards on 9-of-13 passing with no interceptions. The Indians only picked up 95 yards in the game’s final three quarters and had minus-3 in the second.

“We don’t care if they are pretty or ugly,” PNG coach Brandon Faircloth said. “Ozen played hard today and they came ready to play. We got up on them really quickly and thought our guys relaxed and we lost our edge. It was not the prettiest win we have picked up all year but it is a win. We are not going to stress about it.”

Johnson threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Noah Graham to open the first quarter and then, after an Ozen punt, the Indians needed just one play to find the end zone again.

Preston Riggs hauled in a 93-yard touchdown on the Indians’ next play, writing his and Johnson’s names in the PNG record books. It is the longest pass completion in school history, surpassing an 87-yard throw in 1953.

Ozen went three-and-out and punted the ball back to PNG. This time, Keynel McZeal got into the fun.

On the Indians’ first play, McZeal scored from 75 yards out to give PNG a 21-0 lead with 3:54 left in the first half.

The Indians did not score again until backup running back Jaylan Williams plunged in from a yard out with 4:22 left in the game.

Instead of wondering what happened after the first quarter, Faircloth had a pretty good idea why his team started to struggle.

“It was a tough game, absolutely,” Faircloth said. “We came out here at 2 and we have Nederland next week and then we got up on them 21-0. Yeah, I think there was some distraction because they are high school kids who thought it was going to be easier than what it was. That is a credit to Ozen who kept playing hard.

“I am proud of our defense and I am proud of the offense for grinding it out. Sometimes it is going to be like this. You aren’t always going to be at your best, you just can’t be. When you have some adversity like we had today, you have to overcome it.”

PNG overcame it by playing good defense throughout the game. Ozen was held to 331 yards, 87 on the ground and 114 of the 150 passing yards coming on three receptions.

Ozen chopped into the 21-0 lead in the second with a 46-yard touchdown throw from Dominique Morris to Charleston Evans. Evans later caught at 32-yard pass and Kay’fon Hornes had a 32-yard touchdown to close out the Panthers’ scoring.

There was one piece of news Faircloth did not expect and that was an injury to starting running back Preston Hughes. He finished with 26 yards on three carries.

“He has a hip pointer and he will be fine,” Faircloth said. “He will be at practice on Monday. He could have maybe played, so he will be fine. He will be there Friday, I promise.”

The Indians now turn their attention to Nederland, Mid-County Madness and winning the Bum Phillips Trophy for the first time. The Bulldogs will come with an added bit of motivation, having to beat PNG to reach the playoffs.

“I know they are going to be motivated, but they were going to be motivated anyway,” Faircloth said. “It is the biggest game in Texas, and this year it happens on Week [11].”

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Gabriel Pruett: 721-2436. Twitter: @PaNewsGabe