Last week’s loss to Marengo was a tough pill to swallow for the Georgiana Panthers and this week’s 10-6 defeat at the hands of J.U. Blacksher won’t be any easier to take.

The Bulldogs started the scoring off with a safety to take a 2-0 lead.

However, the Panthers’ defense fought back in the second quarter when Adones Peterson intercepted a pass and took it 40 yards for a touchdown.

The score stayed 6-2 until the end of the third quarter, when Blacksher put together a solid drive of over 50 yards.

The Bulldogs scored, then went for two and converted to make the final score 10-6.

Head coach Shane Smothers said the team was improved from last week, but there’s still room for the team to get better.

“We played better than last week and the defense played better, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “We had four interceptions, which gave our offense some chances, but we just didn’t convert on some key downs.”

Smothers said it seemed like the quarterback and wide receivers were just on different pages during the game.

“I’ve been on both sides of it and sometimes that happens,” he said.

An area he said the Panthers have to improve is on the front line.

“We’ve got to get better up front, because I feel like we’ve got good skill guys,” Smothers said.

Overall, the loss to Blacksher was caused by a number of different factors.

“We played hard, and I’m proud of that,” he said. “Our defense created turnovers, but our offense sputtered and I take blame for that.”

Next week, the Panthers get a break from region play by squaring off against 5A Shelby County.

“Maybe our kids will respond well to being the underdog,” Smothers said.