The Newton County football team dropped its fourth straight game last week in a 23-0 loss to Quitman.
The Cougars fall to 3-5 with the loss and will travel to Richland this week to take on the Rangers.
Second-year coach Bobby Bass wasn’t pleased with the loss but thought his team played much better than last week in a 38-14 loss to Mendenhall.
“I thought we played a lot harder on defense,” Bass said. “They had some kids that are hard to tackle. I think they will end up winning our district. They are a good football team with tons of skill players. I was proud of the effort that our defense gave for the most part.”
On offense, the Cougars had 100 yards rushing and 43 passing for 143 yards of total offense with eight first downs.
“There were some plays that we could have made but we missed too many assignments,” Bass said. “It’s not like there weren’t opportunities. It’s really close. If we block one kid, we go score a touchdown but we don’t and they make the play. There were three or four of those kind of plays that could have made a difference. And we had some turnovers that killed us in field position. I thought field position played a huge part of the game.”
Quitman got the ball to start the game and went 63 yards in nine plays, scoring on a 3-yard keeper by Jed Lewis early in the first quarter. The PAT failed and Quitman led 6-0.
After the two teams traded punts, County put together a good drive as they strung together eight plays but came up short as a Lee Hill 34-yard field goal narrowly missed a Quitman held a 6-0 lead going into the half.
County got the ball to start the second half but was forced to punt. Quitman took it from the Newton County 36 and drove 64 yards as Lewis scored on a 22-yard run to take a 13-0 lead.
The Panthers added a 27-yard field goal and a fourth-quarter touchdown for the final margin of victory.
“We are trying to stay positive and encourage them the best way we can,” Bass said. “We blocked a field goal and had some big stops on defense. You hope on a blocked field goal that you can scoop it up and go score and may be get some momentum. If our kids will continue to play with that kind of effort the next three weeks, we will be fine.”
Quitman had 229 yards rushing and 132 passing for 361 yards of total offense. Quarterback Jed Lewis was 11-of-21 passing for 132 yards.
Donavon McCoy led the offense with 55 yards rushing on eight carries while Carlois Walker had 31 yards on 12 carries. McCoy was also 6-of-15 passing for 43 yards.
On defense, Miguel Evans had 12 tackles, including three for a loss while Koye Hardaway had 10 tackles and an interception. Carlonte Walker had six tackles, three pass deflections and a blocked field goal. Cameron McDonald had 11 tackles while Kaleb Blackwell and Jarvus Tucker each had nine tackles.
