Choctaw County dominated the first half to walk away with a 42-16 win at Yazoo County Friday.
Although the Panthers returned to the field much stronger in the second half, a 35-0 halftime lead was too much to overcome.
The Panthers defense started out strong on the first drive and forced the Chargers to punt, but Choctaw’s offense put together two scoring drives for a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Treyon Nelson got an interception in the end zone to prevent the Chargers from scoring with six seconds to go in the first quarter.
Yazoo County scored the only points of the third quarter.
Quarterback TJ Rials completed a first down pass to Jarrett Jasper and then completed a pass to Malikh Brown for another first down.
Jasper then had a first down run, and Rials completed a pass on fourth down and 10 to Amarynn Miles at the one yard line.
Rials then scored on a quarterback keeper and Jasper punched in the two-point conversion to make it 35-8 with 4:10 to go in the third quarter.
The Chargers added another score in the fourth quarter to extend the lead, but the Panthers fought until the final second.
Rials had a big run that set up a one-yard touchdown pass to Jasper as time expired on the game. He added a two-point conversion pass to Treyon Nelson for the final score of 42-16.
Rials finished the game completing 14-of-24 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown and had nine carries for 47 yards and a touchdown.
Jasper had four receptions for 41 yards and a touchdown and six carries for 37 yards.
Brown had four catches for 30 yards, and Miles had three for 15 yards.
Backup quarterback James Patterson completed his only pass of the game for eight yards.
Nelson led the defense with six solo tackles, four assists and an interception. Devon Fountain had two solo tackles and three assists. Dakwon Reasor had two solo tackles and one assist, and Ty Boddy had two solo tackles.
This week the Panthers (2-3) will travel to Humphreys County (5-0). The Cowboys are looking to keep their undefeated record intact after defeating Greenville 12-6 last week for a fifth straight win.
