Richard Sharp
Lake Area Sports
QUITMAN-The Bigelow Panthers gave themselves some breathing room atop the 2A-4 football conference schedule, traveling to Quitman last Friday night and piecing together a statement victory in the form of a 47-9 decision against the Bulldogs.
The visitors set the tone with a long quarterback keep run from junior Keithlin Brown, clipping on a 98-yard run to the house to make it 14-0 in the opening frame of play.
Fast forwarding to midway through the second quarter, the Panthers got back on the board once again on a run from junior Hunter Alexander, however the Bulldogs came through with the final points of the first half after junior quarterback William Litton worked his way in for a touchdown, sending it to halftime with a 20-7 score.
Bigelow continued to pour it on and pull away from Quitman in the form of a 27-0 second half run over the final 24 minutes, getting it going with another quarterback keep run for Brown that seen him shake off all defenders and breeze to the endzone.
The Panthers, who have the top scoring defense in all of Class 2A, held the Bulldogs to 124 total yards, accumulating 582 yards themselves.
Litton provided Quitman’s lone touchdown of the night, rushing 14 times for 13 yards, as Trevor Locke hauled in six passes for 23 yards and Erin Mathes caught two for 26 yards. Litton also had nine tackles for the defense, who was led by Jett Silor’s 14 tackles.
The Bulldogs (4-4, 3-2) returned home again to host Mountainburg, holding on for a 41-38 win. Stay tuned for full story in details in next week’s edition.