ROLLING FORK — The West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws lost a 49-8 decision to the South Delta Bulldogs here Friday night (Oct. 14).
West Tally fell to 4-4. South Delta improved to 6-2.
Choctaws head coach Shane Hargett said his team was missing three starters for medical reasons while two others who did play were ill.
“We weren’t 100%, but we still could have performed a lot better than we did,” he noted, adding that the Chocs as a team “didn’t play that good.”
Hargett said West Tally kicked off to begin the game and the Chocs’ defense forced the Bulldogs into a third-and-25 situation.
“Then we blew a coverage, got mixed up in communication in the defensive secondary, and they threw a long touchdown pass,” he noted.
The coach said the Choctaws tried to respond on their first drive.
“To our credit, we took the ball and marched it all the way down to the 8-yard line,” noted Hargett. There, a Choc-taws running back turned the ball over on a fumble.
“Basically, the theme of this ... Friday night was self-inflicted wounds,” noted Hargett. “I hate to [use] the cliche, ‘Shot ourselves in the foot,’ because everybody says that, but we just self-inflict so much, and when we do that we don’t win. When we don’t [hurt ourselves], we do win.”
Conversely, the coach said South Delta “just didn’t make any mistakes,” adding, “to my knowledge, they didn’t turn the ball over at all.”
Hargett said the Choctaws performed “fair” on offense.
“We threw the ball better than we’ve thrown it. Tristan Hill, I think, threw for like 190 yards, which by far is the most he’s ever thrown for.”
The Choctaws’ lone score of the game came in the third quarter on a Hill touchdown pass to Isaac Day that covered 78 yards. Tony Young ran in the two-point conversion.
Hargett said Ja’Quarius McGee had caught three passes for 80 yards, Drexel Miller one for 30 yards and Day had the rest.
Defensively, Hargett said his team had “some hiccups.”
“They scored on us on at least three touchdown passes deep — like explosive, big, long chunk plays. And that’s something that we’ve been good at all year, but we had some bad reads in the defensive backfield.”
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On the positive side, due to earlier successes the Choctaws presently hold the fourth and final playoff spot in Region 2-1A.
“We’ve still got a great shot to make the playoffs if we take care of business,” Hargett said.
They visit the 6-1 Hollandale Simmons Blue Devils Friday night (Oct. 21).
“They’re not nearly as big as they have been, but they’re coached good and they’re real quick,” said Hargett. “But if we can go over there and play like we’re capable of playing, we can play with anybody. It just depends on the Jekyll and Hyde; which team shows up.”
