Tonight, the Charleston High School Tigers travel to Southaven to face the Class 7A DeSoto Central Jaguars, while the West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws hit the road for Ashland to face the Ashland Blue Devils.
DeSoto Central is 2-2 after last week’s 56-7 home win over PURE Academy of Memphis.
“They are pretty big up front, have a really good running back and a receiver who is actually from here,” said CHS head coach Rasheed DeBerry, noting that 6-1, 180-pound DeSoto Central wide receiver Ter’Myihias Welch played football for Charleston when he was in junior high. Welch leads DeSoto in receiving yards this season. He also returns kickoffs.
DeBerry said that although DeSoto is a bigger school — they have 114 players on their roster — the Tigers “like to play up in class to get ourselves ready for the region and playoffs.”
“We’re pretty anxious to see how we hold up and how we fare against them,” DeBerry added.
West Tally will travel Friday night to face the Ashland Blue Devils, who remain winless (0-4) after last week’s 44-14 loss at Hatley.
“Unless we play like we played [last] Friday, we should take care of business there,” said West Tally head coach Shane Hargett. “We’re going to try our best to put them away early.”
Speaking of last week, it was like deja vu all over again, as Charleston defeated West Tallahatchie 40-12 on Sept. 19 in Charleston.
This was the Tigers’ 37th consecutive victory in this cross-county rivalry match dubbed the “Battle of the Golden Egg.”
“As a rivalry game, our players were pretty up for it,” said DeBerry. “We came out with a lot of intensity and executed fairly well. Our guys fought really hard. We’ve got some room for improvement in areas, but I was pretty pleased.”
Conversely, Hargett lamented his team’s missed opportunities.
“We had all kinds of self-inflicted stuff and miscues like bobbled snaps, fumbled snaps, snaps over the punter’s head,” Hargett noted. “Those are the things that you might be able to get away with against a lesser opponent, but not against an equal or superior opponent.”
The Class 1A Choctaws suffered their first loss to stand at 3-1. Class 2A Charleston improved to 2-1.
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At Charleston, the Choctaws won the initial coin toss and deferred to the second half.
After the kickoff, the Tigers wasted no time. Their first play from scrimmage was a 15-yard run by Marcus “Deuce” Flowers, who punctuated the five-play, 68-yard drive with a 27-yard touchdown run, untouched, up the middle. His two-point try was stopped short, but Charleston led 6-0 with 8:51 in the first.
“Our linemen thought they heard shift one way, linebackers the other way,” Hargett explained of the easy score. “We completely shifted to the weak side for no reason. Just miscommunication.”
The Choctaws’ first possession showed promise. They marched from their own 38 to the Charleston 24, converting a fourth-and-short play with an 8-yard Althavion Hoskins carry, before a bad snap on a fourth-and-7 killed the nearly 7-minute drive.
The home team answered with a three-play, 70-yard drive, striking paydirt on a 61-yard scoring pass from quarterback Devon Olive to wide receiver Tristen Flowers. The two-point pass try failed, but West Tally was flagged for pass interference. On the do-over, Olive ran in the two-pointer for a 14-0 CHS lead with no time remaining on the first-quarter clock.
The first play of West Tally’s ensuing drive was a bad snap that forced the QB to run and fall on the ball for a 15-yard loss. Another bad snap came on a fourth-and-19 play. Punter Quay Kimble had to sprint back and pick up the ball, but he somehow managed to get it off with defenders crashing in.
Back-to-back one-play drives ensued.
Charleston began the possession at their own 38, but a fumble on first down was recovered by West Tally’s Kimble. One snap later, a pass by Choctaws QB Kordell Robinson was intercepted by the Tigers’ Coreyun Spearman at the CHS 30.
The Tigers began a methodical seven-play, 70-yard march that ended when Olive hit Deuce Flowers, who made one defender miss before scoring a 31-yard TD. The conversion failed, but Charleston led 20-0 with 4:56 in the second quarter.
West Tally’s ensuing drive began with a 28-yard kickoff return by Jamerrius Johnson that pushed the ball to midfield. Facing a fourth-and-2 at the CHS 42, Kordell Robinson completed a 12-yard pass to Johnson. After a 17-yard run by Kordell Robinson, the Choctaws were beneficiaries of an unsportsmanlike conduct call that went against the Tigers and moved the ball to the 5-yard line. Kelvin Robinson ran in on the next play. The conversion try failed, but the Tigers’ lead had been cut to 20-6 with 1:24 left in the first half.
A Ledesmond Thomas sack of Olive on first down was followed by an incomplete pass on second and a forced fumble that was recovered by the Tigers on third. Charleston allowed the remaining seconds to tick off.
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Hargett said the Choctaws felt “pretty good” going into the half.
“We thought we took a little momentum in, scoring there near the end and them having a little trouble at the end of the half,” he noted.
The Choctaws would get the second-half kickoff.
“We told our guys, if we take the ball down and score on that opening drive of the third quarter, just like we did right before the half, all of a sudden it’s a one-score game,” said Hargett. “But, once again, we proceeded to blow both of our feet off on the first play of the second half and just give them a touchdown.”
After the kickoff, West Tally had first and 10 at their own 43. Another high snap forced the West Tally quarterback to jump up to catch the ball, but then he dropped it and then kicked it while trying to pick it up. Charleston’s Demarion Johnson was Johnny-on-the-spot, scooping up the ball and returning it the distance for a CHS touchdown. The conversion failed, but the Tigers had extended their lead to 26-6 at 10:54 in the third quarter.
The Choctaws’ next drive featured more excitement, as they moved the ball from their own 35 to the Charleston 32. There, a fourth-and-14 pass was intercepted by Deuce Flowers, but a 15-year penalty call for roughing the passer nullified the pick and instead gave West Tally a first down at the CHS 17.
From the 17, the Choctaws’ Kelvin Robinson ran outside, and at about the 5-yard line he hurdled a would-be tackler for an apparent touchdown. However, it is illegal to hurdle a player in high school football, and a 15-yard penalty pushed the Choctaws back to the 20. From there, Johnson scored on the next play on a touchdown run with a defender hanging on for the ride. The two-point play failed, but West Tally had decreased their deficit, trailing 26-12 with 5:34 in the third period.
However, lightning struck again as Demarion Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 58 yards to the West Tally 10, setting up a first-and-goal touchdown pass from Olive to Josh Hardiman. The conversion try failed, but the Tigers had grown their lead to 32-12 at 5:17 in the third act.
Johnson responded with a 26-yard kickoff return that gave the Choctaws first-and-10 at the Tigers’ 49-yard line. But they could get no closer than the 47 and punted, pinning CHS deep at their 15.
Deuce Flowers ran for 18 yards on the drive’s second play and, facing second-and-7 at the Tigers’ 34, Olive hit Kimble in stride for a 66-yard touchdown. Deuce ran for the two-pointer to make it 40-12, Charleston, with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter.
Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 32 yards to the CHS 43 but found tough sledding. Facing fourth-and-18 at the Tigers’ 38, West Tally punted the ball.
The last glimmer of hope for the Choctaws was forcing Charleston to punt the ball from their own 29 minutes later. The punt netted 5 yards, and West Tally took over at the Tigers’ 34. But on fourth-and-15 from the 39, Kordell Robinson’s 9-yard pass to his brother, Kelvin Robinson, turned the ball over on downs.
Charleston ran out the remaining game clock.
“We should have made it a lot more competitive Friday night,” said Hargett. “We had opportunities, but we just didn’t take advantage. We didn’t take advantage of their mistakes and they did take advantage of ours. That’s basically all it boiled down to.”
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For CHS, Olive completed 6 of 9 passes for 189 yards and four touchdowns, with a passer rating of 149.3.
Deuce Flowers led the Tigers with 15 runs for 132 yards.
Kimble had one reception for 66 yards, Tristen Flowers one for 61, Deuce Flowers one for 31, Josh Hardiman two for 24 and Lazelrick Taylor one for 7 yards.
While defensive stats were unavailable as of late Tuesday, DeBerry did list his top tackler as Coreyun Spearman, with 10 tackles, two sacks and an interception.
West Tally did not offer stats before the newspaper's print edition went to press Wednesday, but according to stats posted by the school online at MaxPreps later in the week, Kordell Robinson completed 4-of-9 passes for 48 yards.
Catching those balls were Jamerrius Johnson, who had two receptions for 23 yards; Kelvin Robinson, with three catches for 15 yards and Althavion Hoskins with one for 10 yards.
Jamerrius Johnson led the team in rushing with nine carries for 56 yards, Kelvin Robinson had seven totes for 31 yards, Kordell Robinson three carries for 27 yards and Cameron Christian five runs for 21 yards. Althavion Hoskins ran twice for 3 yards.
Defensively, Cameron Christian led the team in tackles with six, Corderrius Madden had five stops, Kelvin Robinson recorded four solos and two assists, and Althavion Hoskins had three solos.
Editor's note: This online story features additional statistics that were unavailable when the print edition was published on Sept. 24.
