By Brad Greer

After suffering a last minute loss to Rosa Fort last week, expectations were at season-high for  North Panola  to record its first victory of the season as the Cougars celebrated homecoming Friday night hosting Lewisburg in a Region 2-4A tilt.

The visitors had other plans however as the Patriots scored 27 second-quarter points to take a 34-3 halftime lead in route to a 55-23 romp over North Panola.

Lewisburg’ Xavier Morris ran for 128 yards and three touchdowns while quarterback Cody Sappington tossed three touchdowns as Lewisburg improved to 2-2 in district play and 4-5 overall. North Panola slipped to 0-8 on the year and 0-4 in the district standings.

“The way I look at is, you can not cheat the game. If you don’t put anything into it, you’re not going to get anything out of it. I am just going to leave it at that,”  North Panola first-year head coach Sean Norwood said about his team’s performance.

Lewisburg took the opening possession of the game and marched 85 yards in eight plays as Morris bolted 61 yards up the middle of the North Panola defense for the Patriots’ first score of the night at the 7:47 mark of the first quarter.

The Cougars responded with an 11-play, 69-yard drive of their own to get on the board as Ricky Hunt booted a 21-yard field goal to cut the Lewisburg lead to 7-3 with 2:33 remaining in the first period. North Panola faced fourth-and-goal on the Lewisburg one-yard line before an illegal procedure penalty pushed the Cougars back five yards before Hunt nailed the field goal.

   Lewisburg blew the game open in the second quarter by scoring on all four possessions as Sappington connected with Patrick Rivers on a 19-yard touchdown reception with 7:59 left before intermission. Following a blocked North Panola punt, the Patriots found the end zone yet again as Morris scored on a 15-yard run with Sappington adding the two-point conversion to increase the Lewisburg lead to 21-3.

The back breaker for North Panola came on their next series as an illegal procedure penalty erased a two-yard scoring run by Hunt. One play later, Bo Gatlin stepped in front of a Hunt pass and raced 99 yards for the score to give the Patriots a 28-3 lead.

“The key is Ricky is not a quarterback. That was our fault as coaches for putting him into that position. He can do just about everything else, but that was our fault on that play,” said Norwood.

Lewisburg tacked on one more score in the first half as Sappington zipped a 24-yard strike to Gatlin on the last play of the half to give the Patriots a 34-3 lead at intermission.

North Panola finally reached the end zone on the first series of the third quarter as sophomore Martavious Butler hooked up with Hunt on an 18-yard touchdown to make the score 35-11 after Hunt ran in the two-point conversion.

Butler completed 12-of-16 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns but was also picked off two times. Eighth-grader Jatavious Farmer was one-of-two passing for 27 yards.

Hunt meanwhile gave another outstanding individual performance by accounting for 297 all-purpose yards which included eight catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns to go along with seven rushes for 58 yards. The senior also added 85 yards in kickoff returns.

The Patriots added two more touchdowns in the third period to push the lead to 49-11 heading into the final period.

Butler tossed a 33-yard pass to Hunt on the first play of the fourth quarter to make the score 49-18.

Lewisburg added its last points with 4:49 left in the contest when A. J. Rayford raced 35 yards for a touchdown to push the lead to 55-19.

North Panola closed out the scoring with 43 seconds left to play as Calvin Smith hauled in an 11-yard touchdown reception from Butler.

The Patriots rushed for 298 yards on the ground and 98 through the air for 387 yards of total offense on the night while North Panola registered 332 total yards.

Chris Conner added three rushes for 13 yards while Cedric Clay contributed with one carry for three yards.

Barrett Loveberry added three catches for 108 yards followed by Cordarus Salter who had one catch for 28 yards.

North Panola will visit Center Hill Friday in another district tilt starting at 7 p.m.