When the J.Z. George Jaguars of North Carrollton visit Charleston High School Friday night, there will be a meeting of longtime friends, standing on opposite sidelines.
George, 7-4, will battle the 7-3 Tigers in a second-round playoff game that kicks off at 7.
The winner will advance to the third round to face either the Choctaw County Chargers (7-3) or the Baldwyn Bearcats (9-2), who duel Friday night in Ackerman.
The George matchup is unique in that the head coach and two assistants are former Charleston High products.
Jaguars head coach Rusty Smith and assistant coach Michael “Slick” Hargett spent 10 years roaming the Charles-ton sidelines as assistants on Tiger coaching staffs before leaving in 2020.
George assistant coach Ahmad Alexander played quarterback and defensive back for the Tigers and was the starting QB during Charleston’s 2015 state championship game appearance. Present CHS head coach LaDon Taylor was one of Alexander’s position coaches.
Smith, Hargett and Taylor served together as assistant football coaches for a decade.
“Coach Hargett and Coach Smith, we spent a lot of time working together. It will be difficult looking over there and seeing them on the opposite sideline,” Taylor said. “But once 7 o’clock Friday hits, we will not be worried about them at all. We will be trying our best to take care of them, and then afterward we will go back to the friendship.”
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Taylor said George, fresh from a 44-22 first-round win over Belmont, will pose a formidable challenge for CHS.
“Coach Smith, coming back home, I’m sure he will have all bullets ready to go,” Taylor noted. “He has some pretty good athletes. ... At the end of the day, we’re going to have to strap it up on Friday and take care of business. So we’re looking forward to another tough opponent.”
On Oct. 28, Eupora beat J.Z. George 54-0. On Nov. 5, in a first-round playoff game, Charleston beat Eupora 46-18.
However, Taylor said nothing should be inferred from those outcomes.
“All of those previous games, they mean nothing,” he said. “Every week is different.
Taylor noted that George had some players out when they played Eupora, so no one is taking the Jaguars lightly.
“In our mind, we go about business with the mindset that every week is the state championship game,” said Taylor. “Whoever we line up against, it’s like they’re the best team in the state. We try to carry ourselves like that every week, no matter who the opponent is.”
Charleston was the champion of Region 3-2A. George was runner-up in Region 4-2A.
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In their home win over Eupora last week, Charleston took the opening kickoff and drove to the Eagles’ 30 before turning the ball over on an interception at the 3.
Two minutes later, however, the Tigers forced Eupora to punt, and CHS mounted a seven-play, 40-yard drive capped by a Rod O’Bannon 5-yard touchdown run. He also carried for the two-point conversion, giving the Tigers an 8-0 lead at 4:52 in the first.
Later, a Charleston punt left the ball rolling dead at the Eupora 5-yard line. First down netted a 1-yard loss. On second down, the Tigers’ D pushed the Eagles’ signal-caller into the end zone, but officials ruled that the ball was down at the half-yard line. The question was moot a moment later, as CHS stuffed Eupora for a safety. Charleston led 10-0 with 11:52 in the second quarter.
After the free kick by Eupora, the Tigers launched an eight-play, 41-yard drive that included passes of 19 and 14 yards from O’Bannon to Markevious Prince. O’Bannon scored on a 3-yard carry at 9:09. A two-point pass attempt fell incomplete, but Charleston led 16-0.
Eupora finally got on the board on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that included a controversial conversion on a fourth-and-1 run at the CHS 31. On the next play, the Eagles passed for a 30-yard touchdown. The PAT kick was blocked. Charleston led 16-6 with 5:50 in the first half.
Charleston receiver Terrence Marco goes up in the air for a ball during Friday night's first-round playoff game against Eupora. (Photo by Kelly Paris)
The Tigers scored again in the second period on a three-play, 67-yard drive that was more like a blitzkrieg. Quinterrius Suggs was the workhorse, rushing for back-to-back gains of 23 and 41 yards before punching the ball in from the 3. O’Bannon passed to Maquarious Kimble for the conversion, putting CHS up 24-6 with 5:09 left.
A quick three-and-out gave Charleston the ball at their own 35 with 3:59 remaining. What followed was an 11-play drive that reached the Eupora 1½-yard line before the Tigers stalled out and turned the ball over on downs on a fourth-and-goal pass incompletion from the 4.
CHS led 24-6 at the break.
The Tigers scored twice in the third quarter — first on a 14-yard run by Corterrius Johnson and a conversion carry by O’Bannon at 8:41, and then on a 66-yard Johnson gallop with a failed conversion run at 1:49. CHS was up 38-6 at that time.
Eupora scored at 9:35 in the fourth on a 1-yard run. The two-point pass try failed.
Charleston responded with a drive capped by a 33-yard Johnson scoring run. O’Bannon passed to Korvel Murry for the conversion and 46-12 lead with 1:52 remaining.
The final points of the night were scored by Eupora on a 60-yard run with 1:27 left.
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“Overall, I thought we played a good game,” Taylor said of the win over Eupora. “The guys played well, but we still had some mental mistakes that we’ve got to correct. The further you go in the playoffs, the smaller and smaller the margin of error becomes.”
Taylor particularly lauded the play of the offensive line.
“The offensive line was exceptional this week,” he said. “We had a total of 520 yards of offense. We had two backs with 180-plus yards apiece rushing. The backs always get the glory, but at the end of the day, they’ve got to have someone to open those holes and lead the way for them. Our offensive line, fullbacks and H-backs, they did an outstanding job this week.”
Taylor lauded O-line and D-line coaches Jamal Brock and Larry Richardson for their work in the trenches.
Defensively, Taylor lauded the team’s work in corralling Eupora running back Jay Stevenson, who entered the game averaging 126 yards per outing. Against George just one week earlier, Stevenson had 23 carries for 207 yards and scored five touchdowns.
The Tigers held him to 31 yards on 12 carries and kept him out of the end zone.
As a team, Eupora had rushed 58 times for 398 yards and eight touchdowns at North Carrollton.
Charleston limited Eupora to 29 rushes for 159 yards.
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Statistically for Charleston, O’Bannon was 6-of-16 for 84 yards through the air.
Prince had three receptions for 39 yards, Clay Taylor one catch for 29, Terrence Hill one grab for 11 and Terrence Marco one snare for 5.
Suggs led the ground assault with 20 carries for 185 yards, a 9.3-yard average. Johnson had 11 totes for 181 yards, a 16.5-yard average.
O’Bannon also finished in double digits, rushing 10 times for 57 yards.
