By Amy Thrash, Sports Reporter • amy@southerntorch.com

PELL CITY Ala. — The Fort Payne Wildcats defeated the Pell City Panthers 41-20, on Friday Night. 

Alex McPherson nailed a 20-yard field goal to give the Wildcats the 3-0 lead with 9:28 remaining in the first quarter. 

In the second quarter with 11:01 remaining, Hunter Love scored from 4-yards out making the score 10-0. The Pell City Panthers answered back with a 13-yard touchdown making the score 10-7 with 6:08 left in the second quarter. J.D. Blalock connected with Marcus Ledford for a touchdown making the score 17-0, with 2:53 remaining in the first half. Love punched it in for his second touchdown of the night to make the score 24-7 at half time.

In the third quarter with 7:25 remaining, McPherson drilled a 40-yard field goal making the score 27-13. The Panthers found their way into the endzone, the 2-point conversion failed making the score 27-13 with 2:23 remaining in the third quarter. Blalock found Cam Thomas on a 45-yard touchdown pass to make the score 34-13 with .53 left in the third.

Darwin Camp dove into the endzone from 1-yard out, to extend the lead to 42-13 with 9:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. Pell City made the last touchdown of the night, making the final score, 42-20.

“We were really proud of the maturity of our team. Even though this game did not affect our post season, we went on the road and played a fundamentally sound game,” stated Head Football Coach Chris Elmore. “We did not make a lot of mistakes and we forced some key turnovers on defense. It was another great team win and we are proud of this team for rebounding from their early season struggles and winning 6 games in a row.”

This was a rough week for the Fort Payne WIldcats.  Hunter Love and Caden Holbrook both had surgery for injuries sustained.  Southern Torch wishes them both a speedy recovery. 

Fort Payne will host Oxford for their final regular season home game.