Cougars beat Palmer; hosting Charleston – Goings catches 3 TDs in season opener

Chances are Marco Goings will remember his first high school football game for a long time.

All the North Panola junior did was catch touchdowns by being on the receiving end of scoring strikes of 81, 35 and 3 yards from quarterback Denard Presley as the Cougars opened up the season with a 30-6 win over M.S Palmer on a wet Cougar Field on Friday, Aug. 30.

North Panola (1-0) hosts defending 2A state champion and No.1 ranked Charleston Friday in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Charleston beat 4A Ripley in the school’s season opener.

Against Palmer, the Cougars found the endzone on their first two possessions as Presley connected with Goings on touchdown strikes for a 14-0 lead.

Palmer then took advantage of a special teams miscue by North Panola and scored its lone touchdown with a eight-yard run with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

Both offenses would go into neutral for the next two quarters as neither team could generate a sustained drive on the sloppy field.

The Cougar defense stood tall early in the second quarter as Palmer had 1st & goal at the North Panola 4 only to be turned away by a Micah Fairbee quarterback sack and a Shavarian Davis tackle-for-loss on fourth down.

The score remained 14-6 until early in the fourth quarter as Palmer was called for holding in the end zone resulting in a safety for the Cougars.

North Panola’s Jordan Watson returned the resulting free kick to the Palmer 13-yard line that led to a Presley-to-Goings three-yard TD pass to extend the Cougar lead to 22-6 with 9:24 remaining in the game.

North Panola added the finishing touches on its following series as Djayvean Johnson capped off a 90-yard drive with a 18-yard jaunt with Presley running in the two-point conversion to make the score 30-6 at the 50 second mark.

The Cougars generated 316 yards of offense with 251 coming through the air and 65 yards rushing. Goings finished with 119 yards receiving on three catches while Watson added five receptions for 91 yards. Jahhez Gale also had three catches for 15 yards with Braylon Edwards and Coreyn Harris supplying one catch each.

Presley paced North Panola in rushing with 61 yards on 15 carries followed by Johnson’s 30 yards on nine totes. Watson and Antravious Smoot added one carry for nine yards each.

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