By Myra Bean

The North Panola Cougar football team traveled to Oxford Friday to take on the ranked Lafayette County Commodores in their homecoming. The Cougars found they had their hands full and fell 54-6 in district action.

Though the Commodores were plagued with penalties, they proceeded to turn every setback into an opportunity to score.

Lafayette built a 20-0 lead before North Panola scored with 1:59 left in the first half on a five yard pass from quarterback Quinn Ellis to wide receiver Ricky Hunt. The PAT by Hunt was blocked. Lafayette led 27-6 at halftime.

It was all Lafayette the second half as the Cougars lost Ricky Hunt and Darius Loveberry to various injuries in the second half. Vernon Lewis went out after the first play from scrimmage. His ankle was not up to the challenge, according to the coaching staff. Lewis himself disagreed.

North Panola garnered 140 total yards of offense with 77 rushes and 63 passing while Lafayette had 497 yards, 382 on the ground and 115 in the air.

Ellis had 10 rushes for 70 yards and completed nine of 27 passes for 63 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

The Cougars will celebrate homecoming Friday and host Rosa Fort in the game at 7 p.m. North Panola crowned Mr. and Miss Homecoming last week in its annual coronation. It was held a week early due to nine weeks tests this week. The homecoming parade is set for 5 p.m. Friday.