WEBB — The West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws defeated the Riverside High School Bulldogs 8-0 here Friday night.
It was the first regular-season game played by the Choctaws since Nov. 8, 2019, and new head coach Shane Hargett said it was one on which the team can build.
“We’re extremely young and very fortunate to get the win, but at the same time we’ve got to get better every week,” he explained.
Hargett, who served as offensive coordinator under former longtime Choctaws head football coach Lorenzo Pimpton, said it was the defense that set the pace Friday night.
“We played very well on defense,” he noted.
In fact, it was that unit which set up the only score of the night by either team.
Hargett said defensive lineman Lester Westbrook recovered a Riverside fumble around the Choctaws’ 45 on the first series of the game.
West Tally marched some 55 yards to paydirt, with running back Ja’Quarius McGee covering the final 9 yards of real estate for the touchdown, the coach noted. Quarterback Roddarius Moss connected with tight end Kelvonta Garner on a screen play for the two-point conversion.
The rest of the game proved to be a defensive struggle for the two teams.
Pictured is West Tallahatchie High School head football coach Shane Hargett.
The Choctaws, whose roster features only 25 players, are very young. In fact, freshmen on the team outnumber the total of sophomores, juniors and seniors combined.
There are three seniors, four juniors, four sophomores and 14 freshmen.
Hargett said the defense is “a little ahead” of the offense because the latter unit has not had enough time to gel.
“Offense takes a while lot longer to get in sync with timing and stuff like that,” he noted. “On defense, you just attack the football. We’ve got to get a lot better on both.”
The 1-2 Choctaws — they forfeited two games while on virtual learning at the start of the season — will have another opportunity to do just that when they travel to Rosedale Friday night for a game that kicks off at 7.
The West Bolivar High School Eagles are 1-2, their only win courtesy of a forfeit by M.S. Palmer.
Last week, West Bolivar was trounced 32-0 by North Side, but Hargett said the Eagles will pose a challenge.
“They’re going to be better than the team we just played,” he noted.
Hargett said the Eagles have not experienced some of the COVID-19 related interruptions that some other teams, including the Choc-taws, have faced this summer in practices and preparations.
“They never stopped practicing, and they have a little more experience than we’ve got,” he added. “Of course, I don’t know if there’s a team in the state with less experience [than us].”
Hargett said only game action will gain his team the experience they need to get seasoned and to get better.
