In times like these, people love to cheer for underdogs or over achieving teams. It allows the mind to temporarily escape its own misery by adopting a team which represents the ethics of a hard working achiever. The McBee Panthers represented such a team this past Friday night as they refused to lose to Lee Central. McBee scored with less than one minute to go in regulation to pull out a 20-14 victory.

Coach Sowell describes his team with words like aggressive, country boys, hard workers, tough bunch of kids, physical and by now you get the picture. Those are words of praise and traits of a winning formula in football. Those are also words of confidence the coach has in his team. In other words, Coach Sowell is saying that he trusts his kids to do what they have been taught and trained to do.

McBee got on the score board first when QB Julian Steen connected with receiver Jonathan Dixon for a 6-0. McBee’s second score came when Dashawn Allison rambled into the end zone for a 12-0 lead. It appeared that the Panthers had control of the game in spite of not playing as well as they had previously. However, an uncharacteristic move, by Coach Sowell with two minutes to go in the first half gave Lee Central hope as the Panthers failed to convert on 4th and short. Lee Central scored later and this made it 12-8, Panthers advantage.

McBee plays the old fashioned smash-mouth, grind it out, we’re coming to get you type of football. This was the brand the Panthers’ coaches sold to the players due to the fact that so many of them (18-20) have to play both ways. Let’s face it, the panthers did not play as well as they have come to expect. There were several fumbles by the offense, touch downs were called back. With six minutes remaining in the game, Lee Central scored a TD for a 14-12 lead.

The Panthers converted the two point conversion following their last minute TD to seal the deal with a 20-14 victory. According to Coach Sowell, “We did what we had to do to refuse to lose.” “We’re fine, with no injuries. We understand that we have a lot of work left to accomplish our goals. We don’t want to discredit Lee Central, but we didn’t play well and stay on our blocks on offense and our defense has to play better.”

Congratulations to the Panthers on their victory. Also, congratulations for being number one in the county with a 4-0 record. Fans are encouraged to come out and support the Panthers in a home contest against Lewisville on Sept.18.