Cougars not taking O’Bannon lightly 

By Ike House

North Panola will take on a unfamiliar opponent tonight facing off against O’Bannon. 

O’Bannon also have an identical record as the Cougars and will coming facing a well rested and healthy North Panola team that has been on a roll since their first loss in week one against Rosa Fort.

“Health wise we have been able to return two of our starting offensive lineman and now we have everyone back,” Head coach Derek King said “With us being up against Benton County and having Labor Day weekend that gave a lot of our guys time to rest.”

O’Bannon is coming off of a tough win last week in which they won by two but they will be physically and mentally tired going into a game where North Panola has a lot of momentum. 

“O’Bannon is an interesting team that we don’t see and haven’t seen and fortunately for us they played against Coahoma Ag. week one,” said King adding “They are a super athletic team and if we don’t wrap up on tackles then they can take it the distance and their quarterback is probably the best athlete in the state.” 

With O’Bannon not looking so strong on paper the Cougars are the highly favored team in this game but games are not played on paper. 

The Cougars are preparing for this game like it is the biggest of the year as they will do all season. 

“We will be going in thinking that it will be a four quarter battle because we don’t know what they will do or who they have,” King said “So we are going in as if we are rolling with the big dogs because I don’t see us being able to just play kids for a half and then sitting them.” 

King said they have been conditioning a lot and even with their junior varsity team they have well prepared them because of the rotation they will keep for the night.

 He added that he plans on playing his starters all night. 

O’Bannon is not well equipped with passing the ball but they can run the ball. They have a stable of runners and a few have over two hundred yards a piece. 

“When they get in their ‘I’ formation then it can cause problems,” King said “We have really been working on our option responsibilities a lot.”

North Panola looks to come in and continue their two game win streak and hopefully extend it throughout the playoffs. 

“Our boys are mad about Shannon because we were so close and our boys are mad about Tunica because we put the ball on the ground too much and turned it over more” King said, “Then we got rolling and we’ve been able to get all of guys in and now our guys are saying we can go 9-1. For me that is wonderful news.” 

North Panola will be hosting O’Bannon tonight at 7 p.m.