WEBB — The West Tallahatchie Choctaws’ varsity football season opened on a high note Saturday night with a 30-14 win over M.S. Palmer at Choctaw Stadium here.
Tonight (Sept. 5), they travel to Rosedale to take on the West Bolivar Eagles. Kickoff is at 7.
“They played pretty good,” head coach Marshall Shane Hargett said of his players, many of whom are young.
He noted that the Choctaws lost 98% of last year’s offensive production to May graduation and have had to replace eight of 11 offensive starters and seven of 11 on the defensive side of the ball.
“There’s a lot of new faces,” said Hargett.
One of the newbies is at a critical position: freshman signal-caller Kordell Robinson.
“First time I’ve ever had a ninth-grade quarterback to start,” Hargett noted.
West Tallahatchie head football coach Marshall Shane Hargett
Robinson played pretty well, the coach said, completing 3-of-8 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns — a 78-yarder to Jamerrius Johnson on the first offensive play of the game and a 12-yarder to tight end Cameron Christian on the final play of the first half. In between, the QB scored on a 14-yard first-quarter run and wound up with 104 yards on 12 carries.
West Tally jumped out to a 12-0 lead at the end of the first period and led 18-6 at the intermission.
Palmer tried to make a game of it in the third quarter, scoring another touchdown and tacking on the two-point conversion, but the Choctaws made the outcome clear with two second-half touchdowns by running back Kelvin Robinson — a 7-yarder in the third quarter and a 9-yarder in the fourth. He finished as the game’s top rusher with 151 yards on 10 carries.
“We were unsuccessful, unfortunately, on all of our two-point conversions,” Hargett explained.
In other West Tally stats, James Bridges snared one pass reception for 30 yards. Defensively, Christian led the Choctaws with nine tackles, including one for a loss. Kelvin Robinson recorded eight solo stops in the game.
Last year, the Choctaws defeated West Bolivar 40-0, but the experience factor is a key difference for both teams in 2025.
“They’ve got a veteran team coming back,” Hargett said of West Bolivar. “Just opposite of us, we lost most of our starters and I don’t think they lost anybody. They’re going to be better. Experience counts for a lot.”
Hargett said his team must eliminate some of their mistakes, which he described as “little stuff,” and keep trying to get better.
“West Bolivar is always pretty good at home,” he noted. “We’ve just got to keep at it, get in better shape and play the next game. Effort-wise, we’re OK. There’s just a lot of growing to do.”
