Cougars fall one game away from championship

By Ike House
North Panola participated in the Mississippi State 7-on-7 camp last Friday. The Cougars made it to the semi-finals round but was eliminated by West Tallahatchie which was their second loss of the day, both by the hands of the same team.
The first part of the camp was pool play which consisted of four games, three varsity and one junior varsity. In their first game of the day the Cougars faced Rosa Fort. They easily handled the Lions by a final of 34-9.
The second game of the day was versus Kemper County, the defending 3-A state champions. It was closer than the first game but the Cougars handled business defeating Kemper County 39-21.
In the next game the Cougars had a game on their hands with the first half being close with a halftime score 8-8 but in the second half the Cougars exploded for 21 points and handed South Pontotoc a 29-16 loss.
In the last game of pool play the Cougars Jr. Varsity team got their only win of the day, defeating their former district opponent, the Charleston Tigers 28-7.
The Cougars were a top seed heading into the tournament portion of the day. Their first game of the tournament was against West Tallahatchie.
The match was a tough one that came to the end looking as if the Cougars would pull out the win with a last second drive to take the lead.
With five seconds left on the game clock, West Tallahatchie took a shot down the field and scored the game winning touchdown.
With the tournament being double elimination, the Cougars could only stand one more loss before being sent home for the day. In the second game against Pelahatchie the Cougars returned to winning form with a big victory of 38-22.
The next game was a rematch against the Cougars and Kemper County. The score was similar to the one from earlier with the Cougars winning 33-20.
Then the semifinals were set for the Cougars to get revenge and make their way to the championship game but they would have to go through West Tallahatchie.
The Cougars were down with four minutes and took the ball into the endzone to take the lead but the game rested on the defense.
The Cougars defense held strong until fourth down where they gave up the game winning score on the last play of the game. The Cougars were eliminated by a final of 29-28.