Coming off a loss to open the 2017 football season, the Brookhaven Panthers played hungry Friday night at Lawrence County and took down the rival Cougars by a score of 41-14.

With the win, the Panthers move to 1-1 overall on the season and the loss drops Lawrence County to 0-2. Brookhaven hits the road to face South Pike next Friday and Lawrence County is on the road against Raleigh.

After struggling on offense in their 23-3 week one loss to Pearl, the Brookhaven Panthers came hot out the gates and put on an offensive clinic against the struggling Cougars.

The Panther defense set the tone early and held Lawrence County to a three-and-out on their first offensive possession to take momentum early.

On the first play from scrimmage on offense, senior running back Damarrell Leggett took it 40 yards for the touchdown to give Brookhaven the 6-0 lead.

The second possession on offense for Lawrence County resulted in a fumble and the Panthers recovered to keep the good momentum going.

After the fumble recovery, Brookhaven scored on a long drive capped off with another rushing touchdown for Leggett to give the Panthers a 13-0 lead. The first quarter would end with the same score.

The Panther defense played hard and physical in the first half and made numerous tackles in the backfield to keep Lawrence County from gaining any momentum on offense. The Brookhaven offense got great field positioning throughout the game and turned those opportunities into touchdowns.

On the first drive of the second quarter, junior quarterback Sevante Quinn hit junior wide receiver John Hilbert for a 25-yard TD strike in the left-corner end zone to extend the Brookhaven lead to 20-0.

With the Lawrence County offense backed up near its own end zone, the Brookhaven defense added on with its first defensive touchdown of the season.

Senior defensive back Jemaurian Jones picked off Lawrence County freshman quarterback Haden Mullins and returned it to the house for the touchdown.

As a result, Brookhaven took a 27-0 lead at halftime over Lawrence County.

The Panthers wouldn’t stop there on offense.

They opened up the second half with a 70-yard TD drive, capped off by another TD pass from Quinn to sophomore tight end Kadarius Wells in the right-corner end zone to extend the Panther lead to 34-0.

After another touchdown drive for the Panther offense, Brookhaven held a decisive 41-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lawrence County Cougars wouldn’t go down without a fight. The Cougars rallied for two touchdowns drives to put them on the board and cut the Brookhaven lead to 41-14.

The Brookhaven defense clamped down the rest of the way and took home the victory by a score of 41-14.