WEBB — The West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws defeated the Sacred Heart Catholic School Crusaders 36-14 in a first-round Class 1A state playoff game here Friday night.
West Tally improved to 8-2 while Sacred Heart’s season came to an end at 8-3.
This week, the Choctaws hit the road for Camden, in Madison County, to face the 9-1 Velma Jackson Falcons, the defending Class 1A South State champions. The Falcons beat the winless Mount Olive Pirates 62-6 in the first round.
“We’ve got a juggernaut coming up,” said West Tally head coach Shane Hargett. “Velma Jackson is really big and athletic. We need to play like we played Friday. If we do that, we ought to make it a heck of a ballgame.”
Velma Jackson boasts Class 1A’s 2024 “Mr. Football,” an award from the Mississippi High School Activities Association and Mississippi Association of Coaches.
The recipient, Tyshun Willis, a Mississippi State commit, is a 6-2, 219-pound senior defensive end who recorded 40 tackles with 31 for a loss, 12 sacks, four fumble recoveries and three forced.
Willis also has racked up 554 rushing yards, 460 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns on offense.
Hargett said Willis is particularly disruptive on the D-line, noting, “We’re going to have to block him with about three people.”
Hargett said he hopes West Tallahatchie fans will make the trip to root on the Chocs.
“Anybody who wants to come support us, we appreciate it,” he noted.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The winner of Friday night’s contest will advance to face either the presently 5-5 Taylorsville Tartars or the 5-6 East Marion Eagles Nov. 22.
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The Choctaws were stout last week in punching their ticket to the second round.
“We came out on fire,” said Hargett. “We executed good offensively. We had some big plays in the passing game, which opened up the run a little more. Defensively, we had a really good second half.”
West Tally scored on a short run by quarterback Tristian Hill to take a 6-0 lead with 5:34 in the first quarter.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Choctaws got the ball back and marched 86 yards in six plays, including a 41-yard pass from Hill to R.J. Phillips. Running back Isaac Day capped off the drive with a 25-yard TD carry. Hill ran for the conversion and a 14-0 advantage with 59 seconds left in the first quarter.
Aided by a pass interference call on a drive-starting incompletion, the Crusaders marched 62 yards in seven plays. A fourth-and-4 pass play from Kyron Murphy to a wide-open Gary Duckworth netted a 35-yard touchdown. The PAT was good, and the Chocs’ lead was cut to 14-7 with 9:32 in the second act.
The home team responded by motoring 74 yards in six snaps, the money play coming on a 43-yard run for a touchdown by Hill. The conversion was a jump pass by Day to Phillips for a 22-7 lead at 6:30 in the first half.
Another three-and-out by the Crusaders led to a four-play, 63-yard scoring drive by the Choctaws, with Jamerrius Johnson pulling in a 47-yard TD pass from Hill. The two-point try failed, giving the home team a 28-7 advantage with 2:51 before halftime.
Sacred Heart’s last drive of the half was gift-wrapped to include a face mask penalty and back-to-back pass interference calls on West Tally. However, with first-and-goal at the Choctaws’ 6-yard line, Kelvin Robison burst through for the first of two sacks he recorded in the game. On the next play, Antonio Gipson sacked the QB. After an incomplete pass, and facing fourth-and-goal from the 17 with 2 seconds remaining, Murphy put up a prayer that was intercepted in the end zone by Arlanders Stovall — the first of four picks the home team had on the night.
The Crusaders scored again in the third quarter to pull to within 28-14, before Lester Westbrooks intercepted a pass and returned it about 32 yards for a pick-six touchdown and a conversion run by Johnson.
“That was really big,” said Hargett. “They had some momentum, we had made some mistakes offensively, and then Lester made a big play in picking that off and that kind of took the wind out of them.”
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Hill completed 9-of-13 passes for 151 yards and had 13 carries for 93 yards.
Day led all rushers with 12 totes for 116 yards. Johnson had two runs for 19 yards.
Stovall snared four catches for 54 yards, Johnson two for 51, Phillips two for 40 and Day one for 6.
Phillips led the defense with six solo tackles, four for a loss, plus three sacks.
Reginald Walker, Robison and Westbrooks recorded four tackles each, and Artavis Pimpton and Gipson three each. Pimpton and Westbrooks also had one sack each.
Both Johnson and Walker also recorded an interception.
