After winning back-to-back games for the first time this season, the Panthers of Yazoo County fell back into their old ways with a 46-12 loss to Ruleville Central on Friday night.
The story of the game for the Panthers was turnovers
Yazoo County coughed the ball up eight times and had a turnover on downs twice.
Robert Dobbs, head coach of the Yazoo County Panthers, felt his team had no passion, leading to numerous turnovers.
“It’s hard to overcome that may turnovers,” Dobbs said. “It doesn’t matter who you play. We came out flat. We had no emotion. It was one of those games.”
Ruleville Central made the most of all the turnovers, taking a 26-0 into the half.
With such a deficit at hand, Dobbs had to find a way to keep his team motivated.
“You continue to encourage them, no matter what,” Dobbs said. “We got down 26-0. We could never get that momentum going offensively. We cut the lead to 12 points, but the turnovers kept coming. It frustrated the defense. We have to do a better job moving the ball and getting it into the end zone.”
Ruleville Central took the game by a score of 46-12.
Kory Gainwell kept his explosive running going, rushing 15 times for 125 yards with one fumble.
Cameron Shaffer went 10-for-25 through the air for 107 yards with three interceptions and three fumbles.
Ben Luckett went 3-for-5 for 38 yards with an interception. He also had five total tackles and returned a fumble recovery 45 yards for a touchdown.
Malik Banks had six catches for 86 yards.
Kenderian Dixon had a team-high 11 total tackles.
Tredarius Carr had nine total tackles, one of which was for a loss.
Tyler Lambert had two sacks in the defeat.
Dyevionte Brown had three tackles and a blocked punt.
Alzavian Shelton had four total tackles and a sack.
The Panthers will attempt to reclaim a winning record in the conference on Friday night when they travel to face the Panthers of Amanda Elzy.
Amanda Elzy is 4-4 on the season (1-1 in conference) after defeating Humphreys County 38-6 on Friday night.
Dobbs feels that this Amanda Elzy team is a much better version of the one they’ve played in recent years, particularly in terms of speed.
“They’ve got speed,” Dobbs said. “They’re real fast. They line up and run it right at you. We have to come out focused on the game. They’re much improved from last year. They do a lot of things well. We have to make sure we come out ready to play.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
