By Bart Moss for the FCT

The Phil Campbell Bobcats failed to take advantage of four early turnovers by Mars Hill Friday night in a 42-20 loss to the Panthers.

Mars Hill turned the ball over four times in the first 17 minutes of the game against Phil Campbell Friday night, twice deep inside Panther territory, but the Bobcats couldn’t translate any of the miscues to points.

Phil Campbell’s Brandon Baker picked off a Mars Hill pass early in the second quarter. After that, however, the Panthers got their offense moving, rolling off four touchdowns in the final five and a half minutes of the first half to take a 28-0 lead into the locker room.

The Bobcats scored their first touchdown midway through the third quarter on a nice throw and catch from Peyton Thomas to Ridge Raper from eight yards out. Daniel Smith added the PAT to make the score 28-7.

Brody Nix picked off a Mars Hill pass to stop the next drive. The Panthers, however, added another touchdown to make the score 35-7.

Mars Hill tacked on another score early in the fourth quarter on a 70-yard pass to give the Panthers a 42-7 lead.

Phil Campbell scored two late touchdowns. The first came with 6:08 to go in the game on a 21-yard pass from Thomas to Nix to make the score 48-14. The last score came with 36 seconds on the clock when Raper hit Brandon Thomas for a 16-yard touchdown pass.

All the Bobcats’ positive yardage came in the second half. Phil Campbell had five yards of total offense in the first half. In the second half, the Bobcats ran the ball 12 times for 48 yards and were 14-for-28 passing for 185 yards.

The Bobcats fall to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the region. They will host Hatton Friday night.