The Charleston High School Tigers will host the 4-4 Coahoma County Red Panthers in a special Thursday night game this week.
The contest kicks off at 7.
It is the regular-season finale for both teams, and also marks senior night at Tiger Stadium.
Senior night festivities will be held during halftime.
Coahoma is coming off a 38-6 loss to rival Clarksdale High School.
Charleston head coach LaDon Taylor said the Red Panthers “are a really athletic bunch of kids who play hard” and have good team speed.
“Whenever you go up against people that have just as much speed as you have, or maybe more, attention to detail is very important.”
Taylor said he would like to see the Tigers have a solid outing this week.
“We’re going to try to be as sharp as we can,” he noted. “We don’t want to end the season on a bad note going into the playoffs.”
Taylor added, “We’re one win away from a [Region 3-2A] championship. That’s not the ultimate goal, but it is the first step.”
— * —
Despite achieving a lopsided victory, the now 6-3 Tigers sounded a few bad notes in last week’s contest that saw them defeat the Palmer Dragons 48-12 at Marks.
Charleston had five fumbles, losing two, and tossed one interception. Poor center-quarterback exchanges led to at least three of those fumbles, with one resulting in a Palmer score.
“We had another day where we started out kind of slow. It was 16-6 at the half,” said Taylor. “But we came out in the second half and started making more plays that we should have made in the first half and kind of pulled away.”
Asked why his team sometimes struggles against squads that they appear to hold an advantage over, Taylor said he believes it all boils down to “mental focus.”
“Sometimes, our kids believe that [a win] just happens because we have Charleston on our chest,” the coach noted. “We have to remind them from time to time that you have to play the game, you have to do the right things and what the coaches tell you.”
— * —
Charleston got on the scoreboard with 1:59 left in the first quarter on a quarterback sack for a safety.
After the ensuing free kick, the Tigers mounted their first offensive scoring drive, getting into the end zone on a 5-yard run by Marcus Flowers with 31 seconds left in the first act. Flowers also ran in the two-point conversion.
The home team got in on scoring in the second quarter with a 3-yard TD run that came with 9:29 left. The conversion pass fell incomplete.
The Tigers scored again with 21 seconds remaining in the first half on a 1-yard Rod O’bannon run.
Charleston advanced on its lead with 11:40 in the third quarter when Flowers scored on a 1-yard carry. The two-point run attempt was stuffed.
The defense scored again on a pick-six by Montra Stanford that came with 10:34 in the third. O’bannon passed to Terrence Marco for the two-pointer and a 30-6 lead.
A high snap from center led to a turnover that was parlayed into a 48-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Palmer with 6:46 in the third.
The Tigers closed out scoring on a 50-yard O’bannon TD run with 4:05 in the third quarter, a 21-yard TD pass from O’bannon to Dre Riley with 10:18 in the fourth and a Latese Edwards fumble return for a TD with 5:37 left. The conversion tries failed.
— * —
Statistically, O’bannon completed 1-of-3 passes for the 21-yard TD to Riley. Devon Olive completed none of four pass attempts in the game with one interception.
O’bannon led the rushing attack with 10 carries for 87 yards. Flowers had seven totes for 49 yards, Corterrius Johnson four for 38 and Quentin Carter four for 25.
