It looks like the Portal Panthers are going to continue to help turn what hair head coach Jason McEachin has gray. Friday night they pulled off another game that went down to the wire in Claxton as the Panthers came from behind to win 26-20 win in overtime and move to 6-1 on the season.

“I am very proud of how the guys just kept fighting,” McEachin said. “I mean, we were down for almost the whole game and then we battled back and were able to get it tied late and hold them from scoring right at end. We’ve been in this position a lot this season and we just told the guys to have faith that we could get it done.”

The Panthers started the scoring as K.J. Hunter scored on a short run to put them up 7-0. Claxton answered and added a two-point conversion to take an 8-7 lead. Neither team were able to really move the ball in the second quarter and Claxton took an 8-7 lead into halftime.

The Panthers added a Jason Crawford touchdown to briefly go up 13-8 but Claxton answered again to take a 14-13 lead into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth the Tigers added a score to go up 20-13 and this time it was the Panthers who responded with another short touchdown run from Hunter. McEachin was planning to go for two and the win but a celebration penalty forced him to try a kick to tie it and Hayden Scott split the uprights to tie the game 20-20.

The Panther defense came through with a stand in the red zone as Claxton had gotten down to the Portal 10-yard line. A deflected pass on fourth and goal would send the game to overtime.

“Hats off to our defense for making the plays when they had to both at the end of the game and overtime,” McEachin said. “They really buckled down when we needed them the most.”

In overtime Hunter came through with his third touchdown of the game. The two-point try failed, but the defense held Claxton out of the end zone to seal the victory.

Portal improves to 6-1 and will next host Montgomery County Friday night.