AVON — In their Region 3-2A opener, the Charleston High School Tigers skated to a 52-6 win over the Riverside Bulldogs here Friday night.
Charleston improved to 5-2 on the season while Riverside slumped to 1-5.
Despite the satisfactory outcome, CHS head coach LaDon Taylor said his team “came out really flat” in the first quarter.
“We didn’t play well at all,” he noted. The Tigers led 8-0 after the first quarter, but Riverside drew to within 8-6 early in the second period before CHS got on track.
Taylor said it was “disappointing” that the team seemed to lack the early fire, noting that they need to open in dominating fashion.
“We continue to preach to them that at some point, that can come back to haunt us,” he added. “We’ve got to do a better job. When it’s a team that we should beat, that’s what we need to do” from the opening whistle.
Taylor said the lopsided nature of the win allowed the Tigers to play some of their reserves.
“That was another good thing, as well,” he noted.
The coach said he was very proud of the Charleston fans, who had to travel a couple of hours deep into the Delta to follow the Tigers last week.
“I appreciate the fans,” he noted. “We had a really good fan base to follow us.”
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Charleston scored first in the game on a 4-yard Marcus "Deuce" Flowers TD run to cap a nine-play, 70-yard first drive by the Tigers. Flowers carried for the conversion and an 8-0 lead.
Riverside followed that up with a nine-play, 63-yard drive that basically featured two positive plays: a 21-yard pass play on third-and-7 from the Riverside 40, and a 40-yard touchdown pass to pierce the end zone. The conversion failed, but Charleston's lead was just 8-6.
The Tigers finally came alive in the second quarter, with quarterback Devon Olive hooking up with Quentin Carter on touchdown passes of 53 and 52 yards. Flowers ran for the first two-point play while Latese Edwards carried for the second, giving Charleston a 24-6 lead at the half.
The visitors opened up the offense for a 22-point third quarter when Flowers broke free for a 50-yard TD run (Olive hit David Ray for the conversion), Brandon Henderson had a 48-yard pick-six interception for a score (Olive passed to Edwards for the conversion) and Edwards crossed the goal line on a 2-yard run, giving the Tigers a 46-6 advantage heading into the final stanza.
In the fourth period, Coreyun Spearman added a 1-yard TD run to cap all scoring.
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Statistically, Olive completed 6-of-14 passes for 152 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Carter had a big night with three catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns, while Kemauri Edwards caught two passes for 18 yards and Henderson one for 6.
Flowers rushed eight times for 111 yards and a pair of scores. Timothy Krk Jr. had two runs for 46 yards, Spearman carried six times for 35 yards and one TD, Carter ran twice for 18yards, Edwards had two rushes for 17 yards and one touchdown, and Olive scrambled three times for 8 yards.
Charleston amassed 17 first downs to Riverside's four and rolled up 382 total yards of offense on 38 plays to the Bulldogs' 73 yards (which included 114 passing yards and a negative 41 rushing yards) on 39 plays.
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This Friday, Charleston will play host to the O’Bannon Greenwaves of Greenville. O’Bannon lost their most recent outing to North Side, 42-8, and fell to 3-3.
It also happens to be homecoming week at Charleston High, so Taylor said keeping his players focused will be a top priority before the game.
“There’s so much going on this week,” he said. “You do everything in your power to make sure that the kids enjoy the homecoming while trying to keep them focused on the task at hand Friday night.”
Homecoming festivities will be conducted at halftime Friday night, Taylor noted.
He said O’Bannon, which lost 36-6 to West Tallahatchie during the Choctaws’ home opener on Sept. 6, may be an improved team this week.
“Some teams take a little big longer to jell and get going,” he noted. “But if it’s still that same team [that showed up for the West Tally game], that will be good for the Charleston Tigers.”
Taylor said the Tigers are not dealing with any injuries at this point, which should bode well for them.
When Friday night’s game kicks off at 7, the coach hopes there will be a large number of fans in the home bleachers.
“Hopefully, we will have a big turnout,” he said. “Usually, homecoming brings out a few more people than normal. We’ve got some of the classes coming back to tailgate, so we’re looking for a big crowd.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated from its initial print version to include scoring information and other stats that were unavailable at press time.
