By Myra Bean

It may have only been a jamboree, but from the standing room only crowd at North Panola Friday night, who cared?

It was football.

Though the season does not officially start for North Panola until Friday, last Friday’s jamboree with Coahoma County let everyone know that football season was here.

The band, cheerleaders and the fans were dressed in their red to support the team as they shut out their opponent 40-0.

Junior quarterback Jatavious Farmer led the charge with two rushing touchdowns and passing touchdown to Tevin Wink. Farmer was also the leading rusher with 76 yards on three carries.
He passed for 62 yards, completing five of six attempts.

Junior safety Ole Miss commit Willie Hibbler put the icing on the cake with a 24-yard touchdown interception return.

Sophomore running back Ole Miss commit Justin Connor added a nine-yard touchdown run in the first half. Connor also scored three of the five two-point conversions.

Conner also had 37 yards of rushing on two carries, followed by Darrius Thomas with 31 yards and two carries. Ventravious Sanders had 16 yards on two carries. Wink had 10 yards on one carry and caught two passes for 36 yards as the leading receiver.

Lucius Walls caught one pass for 17 yards.

Head coach Derek King said he saw the players display more confidence. The team debuted their new home uniforms. The red shirt contained grey numbers outlined in white. On the shoulders are grey stripes with a white stripe in the middle. The grey pants have a red stripe with a white stripe in the middle.

“I think us having more kids in the weight room this summer helped them feel better,” King said. “They looked better physically and that is the first part of confidence. As far as assignments, we did pretty good on the assignments the first few drives. We got a little lax, missed a little contain stuff on options, which we are going to have to fix for Tunica who is a little faster.”

North Panola opens the season with 4A Rosa Fort of Tunica on Friday.

King mentioned some players who stood out during the jamboree.

“We had a new kid, Ankeyvious Harris, who came out, first year player who started on all special teams, forced a fumble on kickoff,” he said. “Offensively, Tevin Wink did very well and quarterback Jatavious Farmer did awesome. Offensive line is starting to come together. Also on defense, Martavius Lantern and Darrius Jackson really came up in run support which showed some toughness with cornerbacks which is what we will need.”

The Cougars had 238 total yards with 176 on the ground. Coahoma County was limited to 48 total yards.

North Panola kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday.