By Brad Greer
Most coaches would be apoplectic if their team committed five turnovers in a game, but not North Panola’s  Robert Hunter.

 “We are just a work in progress,“ said Hunter watching his Cougars drop a 20-0 verdict to Cleveland Saturday morning in the Oxford High School/Ole Miss Fall  Jamboree. North Panola bounced back to take a 6-0 victory in the Junior Varsity contest.

 “We have only got six seniors on this year’s squad so it is going to take time for us to develop as a team. One of our offensive linemen was hurt and one was not here today due to a death in the family so that left us with five underclassmen starting on the ‘O’ line, so I cannot be to upset with our play today. They give a good effort,“ said Hunter.

Of the five turnovers, three were bad exchanges from center to quarterback while an interception  and a fumble return accounted for two of Cleveland’s touchdowns.

After North Panola went three-and-out on its opening series, the Wildcats took a 7-0 lead when quarterback Tyler Summers connected with Raymond Gee for a 34-yard touchdown pass to complete a seven-play, 40-yard drive.

Cleveland quickly scored again on North Panola’s second play from scrimmage when Darnell Latham picked off a Martavius Butler pass and walked into the endzone for a 25-yard interception return to give the Wildcats a 13-0 lead.

North Panola put together its most impressive drive of the scrimmage on the following series as junior tailback Cedrick Clay busted a 36-yard run to the Wildcat 34-yard line. The drive quickly went backwards however as the next  three  plays resulted in negative yards that forced the Cougars to turn the ball over on downs on their own 48-yard line.

Cleveland tacked on its last touchdown later in the 20-minute half when defensive linemen Donnell Hixson scooped up a Butler fumble and rambled nine yards for the score.

The North Panola defense came up with two big plays however as Aaron Kimmons and Tony Hibbler each recovered fumbles to stop Wildcat drives.

Butler completed two-of-seven passes for eight yards for the Cougars with  freshman Jatavious Farmer catching one pass for 11 yards while Christopher Conner had one catch for minus three yards.

“I saw some good things today. I really did,“ said Hunter.  “The defense gave up only one touchdown and played hard and Martavious did the best he could without a lot of help from the offensive line. We’ve just got to get to work and prepare for the first game Friday against Rosa Fort,“ said Hunter.

In the 20-minute junior varsity game, Farmer  scored on a five-yard touchdown run at the 11:19 mark for the only score of the game. Farmer led the Cougars in rushing with 27 yards on three carries. Quadarius Cole added two carries for 11 yards while Shameek Thomas had one carry for four yards and also intercepted a pass on defense.

Robert Oliver hauled in a 21-yard completion from Farmer.