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Both teams fought like cats and dogs. This time the cats prevailed as the Lanett Panthers dominated the LaFayette Bulldogs in a cross-county rivalry game.

Keondae Huguley was the spark early in the game for the Panthers. The running back punched in Lanett’s first, of many touchdowns. He would score again on a long pass from quarterback Fred Broughton to put Lanett up 14-0 early. 

“The first two drives were amazing. I mean you had guys blocking, doing what they were taught to do,” said Huguley.

Broughton put an exclamation mark on the first quarter with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Staples with 2:50 minutes left in the first. 

The Bulldogs started the second quarter with a fumble recovery by 5. But they couldn’t get anything going. 

Alajawon Whitfield then broke it open with a 65-yard punt return with 6:28 minutes left in the half to put the Panthers up. The rest of the quarter would be Lanett running down the clock. 

They had a chance for another touchdown but with 1.8 seconds left they decided to settle for a field goal. An almost 40-yard kick by Yonatan Morales Cobon.  

“I thought special teams was phenomenal,” said RJ McDonald, Lanett’s head coach. 

Three minutes into the half, another passing touchdown from Broughton extended the lead to 38-0 to receiver Ashton Autry.

At this point, the Panthers put in a backup quarterback, Riontae Zeigler. The Bulldogs were able to stop them when a fake punt from Lanett went sideways. 

LaFayette got the ball on the home team’s five-yard line. A screen pass to Jordan Johnson would finally get the Bulldogs on the board, 38-6, with two minutes left in the third.

It was not a long celebration for LaFayette. A punt return would get Lanett into Bulldog territory. Then with less than two minutes left in the quarter, a spectacular 35-yard sideline run by Rakenzia Tucker put the lead to 45-6. 

The Panthers weren’t done. Ziegler sent a 30-yard bomb downfield to spur another drive. The quarterback would keep it for a one-yard rushing touchdown with five minutes to go. 

Turns out, LaFayette wasn’t done either. Quarterback Kemare Harrington outran the defense around the outside for a 30-yard running touchdown to make it 52-12. That would be the final touchdown in another entertainment edition of the Lanett and Bulldog rivalry. 

“We played a really complete ball game, start to finish,” said McDonald. “The best one we played all year. And we just got to continue to build off of this.”