Southside (2-2) made it interesting at the end, but the Panthers held off a late Monroe County (1-3) rally Saturday for a 32-28 victory.

Behind a three-touchdown performance from Scott Cole, the Panthers took a 32-6 lead on Monroe through three quarters, but things got interesting when Cole had to leave before the fourth quarter in order to be on time for a wedding he had planned to attend. With the Southside offense stalling without its signal caller, Monroe furiously rallied with three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make things interesting. But, the rally was too little, too late.

“This is a great win,” said Southside head coach Daniel Flowers said. “Being 1-3 is horrible, but 2-2 — I’ll take that any day of the week.”

The game was suspended Friday after one play due to lightning with Monroe leading 6-0.

Southside came out as a completely different team Saturday, Flowers said. Cole ran in for a score to tie the game 6-6 at halftime and then the Panthers controlled the third quarter.  DeQuan Johnson added two receiving touchdowns from Cole and Ke’Andre Rutledge ran back two interceptions for touchdowns to give Southside a 32-6 lead after three quarters.

The Panthers will travel to play at Thomasville next week.