Tonight (Nov. 29), the Charleston High School Tigers will host Region 3-2A foe, the Northside Gators, with a berth to the state title game on the line.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
It will mark the 13th time since 2004 that CHS will have competed for a North State championship, either in Class 3A or 2A. They are 8-4 overall, 6-2 in home games.
The Tigers presently are two-time defending 2A North State champs after winning the north in 2022 and 2023. Including this week, they will have appeared in the north title game for five straight campaigns dating to 2019.
Last year, Charleston won the second state championship in program history.
If the Tigers win Friday night, it will mark just the second time in program history (2014-2016) that CHS will have competed in state championship games for three years in a row.
However, to reach that point, 11-2 Charleston will have to defeat 10-3 Northside for a second time this year.
The two teams locked horns in an Oct. 25 regular-season tussle at Shelby that was won by Charleston in overtime, 40-34. The win helped CHS to finish as the regional champ. Northside had to settle for runner-up.
Taylor said he expects this week’s contest against the Gators to be hard-fought like the first but was otherwise tight-lipped about the matchup.
“We’re just excited to still be playing at this point,” he said. “[North Side] is the next game on the schedule, and we’re going to treat it just like we’ve treated all the others.”
Friday will mark only the second time ever that Charleston and Northside have met in the football state playoffs. During the first, in 2019, the Gators edged the Tigers 14-6 in a 2A North State championship game played at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale.
Taylor said he is thankful for the fans who come out to support Charleston and hopes to see a large home crowd at the game Friday night.
“We’re looking forward to a really good Thanksgiving Day with our families, and then on Friday, hopefully, we can all show up — one big family here in Charleston — and get the job done on the football field,” he noted.
This week’s winner will advance to meet the victor of Friday’s 12-1 Raleigh at 12-1 Heidelberg 2A South State tilt.
The 2A state championship game will kick off at noon Saturday, Dec. 7, on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
— * —
While Northside was beating Union 20-3, Charleston was defeating Calhoun City 30-14 during a game at Tiger Stadium last week.
Calhoun City won the toss and elected to receive. Facing fourth-and-4 at their own 40, the Wildcats lined up to punt. Quentin Carter rushed through to block the kick and Timothy Kirk picked up the ball and returned it 25 yards for a pick six. Latese Edwards ran for the two-point conversion, giving Charleston an 8-0 lead at 9:47 in the first quarter.
Calhoun City got on the board after an eight-play, 48-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run at 10:20 in the second period. A two-point try failed.
Charleston scored again with a five-play, 69-yard drive aided by a personal foul penalty on Calhoun City. Marcus “Deuce” Flowers scored on a 30-yard run, then carried for the conversion and a 16-6 lead with 1:28 in the second period.
That was the first of three touchdowns scored in that tiny window before halftime.
Calhoun City returned the ensuing kickoff to their own 45 before hitting a pass to the CHS 32. Edwards sacked the Wildcats’ signal-caller for a 15-yard loss, but he responded with a 47-yard TD throw. The two-point run try again was stuffed by the Tigers, who held a 16-12 lead with 20.3 seconds before the half.
Conventional wisdom would have the home team accept the kickoff and coast into the locker room content with a 4-point advantage, but the CHS coaches had other ideas.
After the kickoff, the Tigers had 15.4 seconds to work with. A first-down pass fell incomplete, but on second down QB Devon Olive hit Brandon Henderson at the Calhoun City 28, where the Tigers called a timeout with 2.0 seconds remaining.
An end zone pass was incomplete, but the Wildcats were flagged for interference as the buzzer sounded, giving Charleston penalty yardage to the 14 and an untimed down.
An ensuing Olive pass was incomplete, but a flag was thrown for roughing the passer, moving the ball to the 7-yard line for a second untimed down.
This time, Olive hit a wide-open Flowers for the 7-yard touchdown, then passed to Henderson for the two-point play, giving the Tigers a 24-12 halftime advantage.
“I’m proud of the guys for executing to put those extra points on the board before halftime,” said Taylor. “The guys really focused and executed when we needed to.”
In the third quarter, Lamarion Brown intercepted a Calhoun City pass in the CHS end zone, setting up a nine-play, 90-yard scoring drive for the Tigers. Flowers had runs of 13, 9, 16 and 28 yards during the series before scoring on a 6-yard run with 3:39 left in the third.
Brown made another defensive play for CHS later in the third, knocking the ball away when Calhoun City tried to pass on a fake punt.
