photos by Jason DyessQuitman's Braylon Peters (11) uses a stiff arm to pick up a first down.

The Quitman Panthers’ offense seemed like it would never get rolling against the Moss Point Tigers on Friday. In the first half, the Panthers punted twice, turned the ball over on downs twice and lost a fumble at the boundary of the endzone. Then, the second half changed everything.

The Panthers scored on the ground and through the air in the third quarter to secure a 39-13 home victory over Moss Point after going into halftime up just 6-0.

“Overall we played well. Offense came out a little slow, but as the game went on, they got better. I felt like the defense, they came out flying around, they got some things done early and often,” Quitman coach Rashad Gandy said.

Jeremiah Harris set up Quitman’s first-half touchdown by intercepting the Moss Point quarterback in Panther territory. Harris batted a pass up into the air before snagging the ball to force a turnover.

“He just threw the ball close and I tipped it, and I had to get the interception,” Harris said. “It felt great.”

Quitman was forced to punt later in the drive, but the Panthers were bailed out after a Tiger roughed the punter to give Quitman a new set of downs. Akylin Dear capitalized on the Moss Point error with a 5-yard touchdown rush that gave the Panthers the first lead of the game with six minutes to play in the first half. Quitman held the 6-0 lead into halftime.

Moss Point got the ball first coming out of halftime with a chance to take the lead, but Quitman’s suffocating defense continued to get critical stops in the second half. Demondrae Stribling recovered a fumble for the Panthers on the Tigers’ first drive of the second half, and Savion Sholes recovered another fumble on their third drive of the half.

While the Tigers’ offensive struggles continued into the second half, the Panthers looked like a completely different team coming out of halftime. Quarterback Braylon Peters threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Shunzarius Dear that extended the Quitman lead to 12-0 on the Panthers’ first drive of the second half.

Jaliel Cameron took the reins from there. Cameron scored a rushing touchdown on each of Quitman’s next three drives to give Quitman a 33-7 lead.

“Jaliel Cameron means a whole lot to this team. He’s a great asset to this team. He’s one of those guys that does everything right, does everything we ask of him,” Gandy said.

The Tigers got on the board with a 64-yard touchdown rush in the third quarter and an 80-yard touchdown pass in the fourth, but they could not keep pace with the Panthers’ offensive explosion. Akylin Dear put the finishing blow on the Tigers with a 30-yard touchdown rush in the fourth quarter.

“I thought we played good,” Cameron said. “We’ve got a strong running game, but we’ve got a lot of improvement to do.”

With the 39-13 win, the Panthers advanced to the third round of the 4A playoffs. Next up, the Panthers travel to Mendenhall on Friday.

“The (offense) continued to grind,” Gandy said. “The guys believe in what we do, and they continued to fight.”