By Dalton Middleton
Special to The Dispatch
Following a season where the West Lowndes High School football team went 8-5 and ended their season in the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1A playoffs, the Panthers look for even more this season.
One of the early setbacks took place in the season opener when West Lowndes fell to Durant, 12-0. This time, the Panthers made sure to have a better opening-night performance.
West Lowndes did just that, scoring 18 first-quarter points and rolling over Durant, 40-6.
Led by senior quarterback Lemarrius Fair’s 153 total yards of offense, the Panthers looked dominant on the run game they were able to achieve and racked up 288 yards rushing. Such a successful rushing attack opened up some key passes that helped lead the Panthers to victory.
West Lowndes football coach Anthony King liked what he saw from the rushing attack and was impressed with how his quarterback threw the ball.
“We have a lot of skill guys and we have a lot of guys who can get to the outside,” King said. “We have guys that can run up the middle and we have the speed to get to the outside. We have the size to pound it up the middle if we want to. We can pass it. The only thing we have to do is fix our passing game a little bit more but we can play physical against a team when we have to.”
Even with Fair leading the way with a great rushing and passing attack, senior athlete Marcus Farmer stood out at every position. With a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and an interception on defense, Farmer seemed to be everywhere on the field and Durant never found an answer for him.
With as great of an opening game as he had, Farmer gave all of the credit to his teammates for the success of the team.
“We have great work ethic,” Farmer said. “We want to go farther this year. We have all been putting in work this summer to get to the state championship. We have been putting in a lot more work. Everyone on the team is a brother, and the brotherhood is one of the reasons why we play so well together.”
Leading the way on defense, Farmer and company only allowed 127 yards of offense while only allowing seven first downs. With Durant only having a few big plays in the entire game, King enjoyed watching his defense work, but noticed aspects of the team they needed to work on for the following weeks.
“The defensive line looked really good,” King said. “I was pleased with how the defensive line played but we gave up a couple of long first downs and we shouldn’t have given up the score. We have a couple of things we need to fix but we are going to try and get those cleaned up by next week.”
Looking ahead, West Lowndes has already started to avenge one of the losses from last season on the road back to the playoffs. Fair enjoyed what he saw from his entire team, but he knew it is not enough just yet.
“I don’t think we have proved ourselves yet,” Fair said. “Before it is all said and done, we are going to prove ourselves and 1A football is going to really feel our presence. We can go a long way in our division if we keep up our hard work.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.