HATTIESBURG — The Charleston High School Tigers’ 2022 football season came to a close here Saturday (Dec. 3) with a loss in the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s Class 2A state championship game.
South Mississippi champions, the Scott Central Rebels, earned their second consecutive 2A state crown by defeating the North Mississippi champion Tigers, 42-12.
Scott Central finished the season 13-2 while Charleston closed the campaign at 11-4.
Since 2005, the Tigers’ football program has made seven trips to state championship games, losing six. In 2011, Charleston defeated Hazlehurst 34-8 to win the Class 3A state crown.
Saturday’s 30-point deficit was the worst ever experienced by CHS on the state level. In five previous losses in state title games, the Tigers had been outscored by a combined 29 points.
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In his third year as Charleston head coach, starting during the 2020 COVID-induced scrapped season, LaDon Taylor led a team to the state title game for the first time.
Unfortunately, the Tigers drew a buzzsaw in the Scott Central Rebels, who proved too much to handle.
Taylor admits that his squad faced a better team Saturday at M.M. Roberts Stadium, on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.
“Sometimes, that happens,” he said. “There have been a lot of other teams who lined up against us, and they had to say the same thing.”
Scott Central senior quarterback Quez Goss was the star of the show and afterward was named the game’s MVP. Class 2A’s “Mr. Football” passed for 281 yards and five touchdowns, also adding a rushing TD for good measure.
“He was as advertised,” Taylor noted, while also tipping his hat to the Rebels receiving corps and defense.
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“We didn’t play our best game,” said Taylor. “That’s kind of the wrong game to not be on your absolute ‘A’ game, but our kids competed and did what they could do to represent our town. It wasn’t what we wanted. We didn’t go down there expecting anything but a win, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
Finding themselves in a 21-6 hole after the first quarter, the Tigers trailed 35-6 at the half, and a running clock soon followed. Still, Taylor said his guys never slacked up.
“They fought until the end,” the coach noted. “That’s tough to do, especially in that game, because when kids feel like they can’t win, they tend to give up. But our kids still fought until the very end of the fourth quarter. ... I’m really proud of the guys.”
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Anyone who was late for the first minute of Saturday’s game missed the first volley unleashed by Goss and company.
Two plays into the game’s opening drive, Goss lofted a deep pass to a streaking Antreyvious Edwards, who raced to the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown. The PAT made it 7-0, Scott Central, with 11:34 in the first quarter.
Charleston responded with some punch of their own, mounting a 10-play, 60-yard drive to paydirt that featured a bruising 32-yard run by freshman Marcus Flowers. Quarterback Devon Olive put the finishing touches on the possession with a 6-yard scoring pass to junior Dre Riley. The two-point attempt, which was to be a pass, failed. Scott Central led 7-6 with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter.
"We put together a really good first drive and were able to get into the end zone," said Taylor. "We had more [good] plays throughout the game, but we just couldn't string together enough to get it done."
The Tigers seemed to catch another break moments later when Charleston’s Deonte Boyd recovered a fumble at the Rebels’ 47, but Scott Central’s defense stiffened and CHS was forced to punt moments later.
Taking the ball at their own 25, the defending champs wasted little time scoring again. On a third-and-8 pass at their 27, Goss connected with Javieon Butler for a 73-yard touchdown. After the PAT, Scott Central led 14-6 with 2:04 left in the first act.
The tide continued turning on the Tigers’ next possession, as Charleston’s Terrence Marco had a punt blocked on fourth-and-14 from their own 26. The Rebels recovered at the CHS 13.
After a sack by Kavarrion Brown and an offensive holding penalty had backed them up, Goss found Edwards again, this time for a 31-yard TD. The PAT was good, and Scott opened up a 21-6 advantage with 10 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Following another Charles-ton punt, the Rebels began at their own 46-yard line. Two plays later, Goss dropped back and heaved a throw downfield to Edwards, who pulled it in for a 53-yard touchdown. At 9:38 in the half, Scott Central led 28-6.
The Tigers got a stop following the ensuing punt, resulting in a turnover on downs at the Charleston 38, but CHS lost ground and ended up punting on fourth-and-24 from their own 24.
With 4 minutes left in the half, the Rebels mounted a five-play, 63-yard drive capped off by a 28-yard TD pass to Butler. The PAT gave Scott Central a 35-6 lead with 2:27 remaining in the half.
The teams exchanged defensive jabs to open the third quarter, with Marquavious Bradford intercepting an Olive pass at the Charleston 42. But the Tigers’ D reared up and after a couple of Goss takedowns, a deep pass by the Scott signal-caller on fourth-and-11 was broken up by Riley at the CHS 10-yard line.
A special teams blunder on a fourth-and-22 situation from the Charleston 31 forced Marco to pull the ball down and run. The Rebels took over at the Tigers’ 32, and three plays later Goss ran for a 21-yard touchdown. The PAT gave Scott a 42-6 lead with 6:23 in the third.
CHS managed one more scoring drive in the game, marching 63 yards in 11 plays. A key play was a 22-yard pass completion from Olive to Marco that placed the ball at the Scott Central 2-yard line. Due to a defensive stand by the Rebels, the Tigers needed all four downs but scored when Olive connected with Riley for a 4-yard touchdown with 11:03 left.
Scott Central responded by mounting a 10-play drive that chewed up the remainder of the game clock.
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Olive ended with 6 passes for 35 yards, including the 22-yarder to Marco, four to Riley for 11 yards and one to Jaylon Brooks for 2 yards.
Flowers led CHS runners with 12 carries for 49 yards. Rod O’bannon had 10 rushes for 24 yards and Corterrius Johnson six for 11.
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In the final analysis, Taylor lauded his team, who began the season 2-3 before reeling off a string of nine straight wins, capturing the Region 3-2A and the Class 2A North State crowns to earn the program’s first state title game berth since 2016.
Before the season began, coaches did not know what they had, said the coach.
Despite the fact they did make it to the 2A north half game last season, the team lost many of the pieces to their puzzle.
CHS head coach LaDon Taylor, right, huddles his team for postgame remarks while one of the players holds the Class 2A state runner-up trophy which the Tigers were presented after the game. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
"We had a lot of uncertainty. We lost 12 seniors last year, and kudos to our coaching staff for being able to plug in people from the previous year and get them ready to go," Taylor noted. "That was some of the growing pains that we felt early in the year as we got new people in who were having to do things they hadn't done before."
When graduation rolls around next May, the coach said Charleston will be losing 14 of 42 players who were on the 2022 team.
"That's part of it," Taylor added. "I want people to know what a great job the coaches are doing and have been doing to give the community something to be proud of and bring everybody together every Friday night."
The coach lauded the fans for their turnout at Saturday's game in Hattiesburg.
"We appreciate them, and I would like the fans to know that we don't go into any game not planning to win," Taylor said. "There's always going to be a plan. Just like there was a plan for all 14 games before that game, there was a plan for this one."
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The Dec. 3 loss was heartbreaking, but there was much to celebrate nonetheless, the coach explained.
“It is a blessing to play in the last [possible] game of the football season,” Taylor said. “A lot of other people, communities, would have loved to have a game after Thanksgiving. The goal every year is to play in that last game, but also win it. We got half of it right this year, so we’ve got to try to figure out a way to get back and achieve the complete goal next year. But that’s going to take a lot of work and dedication — not only from the kids, but from the coaches as well.”
Taylor added, “At the end of the day, I love my guys and coaches, and I appreciate this ride that we had this year.”
