Most of the Selma-Southside games of the last decade haven’t been close and many of them were over by the end of the first quarter. 

However, that was far from the case Friday night at Memorial Stadium when the two rivals met to open their regular seasons.

Southside stunned the crowd with two first quarter touchdowns to put Selma into an early hole, but the Saints found their footing in time to escape with a 35-26 win and their eleventh straight win over the Panthers.

“I feel like we put a scare in them,” said Southside head coach Daniel Flowers. “We showed them we are no pushover no more. It’s going to be a battle every time we play those guys.”

Southside quarterback Khamari Gibbs connected with wide receiver Ger’Quialius Fails for 44-yard and 70-yard touchdowns in the first quarter to give the Panthers a 12-0 advantage.

At that point, Selma had been unable to move the football and the Saints had turned the ball over three times. The Panthers lead could’ve been much larger considering they had two possessions inside the Selma 20-yard-line and a third in Saints’ territory in the first quarter, but couldn’t turn any of them into points.

“Southside had a chance to put the game out of reach,” said Selma head coach Leroy Miles. “They had a chance to put the game out of reach, but I commend this team for battling back through that adversity.”

Southside’s first major miscue of the game gave Selma the momentum the Saints’ needed to get back into it.

Southside fumbled a punt return at its own 21-yard-line and Selma recovered.

Saints’ quarterback Marquell Moorer scampered for 16 yards on the first play to get Selma into scoring position. Running back Lekedrich Rogers did the rest, running in from 4-yards-out to pull the Saints within 12-7.

On Selma’s next possession, another long Moorer run — this one for 42 yards — and a pass where he scrambled and found Rogers open down the right sideline on a fourth down, moved the Saints’ back into scoring position.

“We’re going to have to let Marquell make plays for us and he did an excellent job tonight in getting some key first downs and getting out of some situations we haven’t been able to get out of in the past,” Miles said.

Running back Dewayne Harris scored from there on a 2-yard run to give Selma its first lead of the night at 14-12.

On Selma’s next possession, Moorer connected with Herschell Brown for a 7-yard touchdown to give the Saints a 21-12 lead with 21.8 seconds left in the first half.

With Selma rolling, it looked like Southside would be ready to jog into the halftime and regroup.

Panthers’ kick returner DeQuan Johnson had other plans, returning the kickoff 60-yards for a touchdown to pull the Panthers within 21-18 at the half.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they couldn’t keep the momentum going to begin the second half.

Gibbs was intercepted on the first play of the third quarter to set Selma up at the Southside 21-yard-line. On the third play of the half, Brandon Hatcher scored on a 3-yard run to give Selma a 28-18 lead with 10:32 left in the third quarter.

Neither team could find the end zone the rest of the quarter, but Selma struck again after Southside turned the ball over on downs deep in own territory. Jon’Tavious Tripp took a double reverse around the right end for a 28-yard score to give Selma a commanding 35-18 lead.

Miles said at halftime the Saints’ adjusted after a poor offensive half of running the ball. The Saints started running the ball weak side, and it was effective, but Miles said the main reason his team had success was because of the difference in the amount of players between the schools.

The Selma roster lists 86 while the Southside roster had 37 players.

“We have more numbers than they do and that was the difference,” Miles said. “If Southside had 60 to 70 ballplayers, it probably would’ve been a different outcome.”

Southside didn’t quit though, even when the game was out of reach.

The Panthers drove down the field in the final minutes and Christopher Edwards ran in the night’s final touchdown with 23.1 seconds left.

“They kept fighting,” Flowers said. “They didn’t give up and I feel that’s a win for us. This is the most we have scored on Selma High since I’ve been at Southside.”

Selma (1-0) will play Dallas County next Friday at Memorial Stadium while Southside (0-1) will host Keith.