At halftime, everything was looking good for the Georgiana Panthers with them leading Florala 18-14.

But when the Panthers took the field for the second half, the offense never got back up to speed. When a short punt put Florala at the Georgiana 19-yard line with five minutes to go, the Wildcats put the nail in the coffin, scoring six points for the win 20-18.

“We got a little cold offensively the second half,” said head coach Shawn Gregory. “We only had the ball for about two series the whole second half.”

Gregory said his players just didn’t have enough in them to finish off with a win.

“Defensively, when you are taking that many snaps, with some of you players going both ways, you run out of gas,” Gregory said. “We just couldn’t get the offense on the field long enough to get enough of a lead that we could put it away. They were pounding us hard with that back. We knew we had to stop him. They just kept nickel and diming us with the rushing game.”

Keon Binion led the Panthers in rushing, with eight carries for 89 yards. Rickey Everett picked up two carries for 32 yards.

Quarterback Devin Bonner completed 7- of-17 passes, for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Most of Bonner’s passes found the hands of Everett, who had five receptions for 102 yards and two touchdowns.

“Its like the old philosophy goes, if you don’t have the ball you can’t score,” Gregory said. “If we could have managed another reception, we’d be singing a different tune.”

The Panthers travel to face Geneva County next Friday.