The Georgiana Panthers recorded a historic undefeated regular season in 2016, but with one caveat:  one of those wins was a loss to the New Brockton Gamecocks.

But a convincing 41-6 Panthers win over Gamecocks will ensure that the 2017 season, at the very least, will not have an asterisk by it’s regular season win.

Georgiana head football coach Ezell Powell said that though that wasn’t the sole motivating factor for the win Friday, he and the Panthers are gunning for another truly historic regular season—one without a blemish of doubt.

“What we wanted to do as a team is we talked about trying to go undefeated, but this time let’s truly go undefeated, and not have an asterisk by it,” Powell said.

“I told the team ‘let’s go beat everybody who is put in front of us.’  This is a game we didn’t win last year, but to come out and get the win this year is something we’re happy about because we had a bitter taste in our mouths from last year’s game.”

The Panthers’ offense stumbled out of the gates initially, but quarterback Jamichael Stallworth and company eventually found an unstoppable grove on New Brockton’s home turf.

The Panthers’ defense similarly  outmatched the Gamecocks’ struggling offense, forcing a number of 3-and-outs and eventual Georgiana scores. 

“I put my young players in for the last few minutes, and they fumbled the football right to them on the 5-yard line, and they scored,” Powell said. “But the defense did a good job of holding them out of the end zone all night long.”

Region play begins in earnest Friday as the Panthers travel to Florala to face a Wildcats team that the Panthers have traditionally not had trouble dispatching.

But Powell and the Panthers expect a hard-earned fight.

“We don’t want to take anybody lightly, but we want to win the way we’re capable of winning,” Powell said.

“And if we’re capable of winning 41-6, then that’s the way we want to win.  We don’t want to squander an opportunity in any ballgame.  We want to work each ballgame to get ourselves in a position to be a champion, and the only way to it is to take it one game at a time, and to play the style that we’re supposed to play, no matter who the opponent is.”