SHAW — Despite a 44-8 loss Friday night to the McEvans Warriors, West Tallahatchie Choctaws head coach Shane Hargett said his team continues to show some progress.
“We actually played a little bit better in a lot of areas than we did the week before,” he noted, referencing his team’s 18-14 win over West Bolivar on Sept. 24.
McEvans improved to 4-1 while West Tally fell to 2-3.
The lopsided nature of the loss is more a testament to McEvans than an indictment of West Tally, Hargett said.
“We’ve got a young team and we ran up against a team loaded with experience,” he explained. “There’s no substitute for experience, and they had not been plagued by the COVID issues that we had. But our guys grew up a lot, and it did them good to see some good competition, which is only going to make us better going forward in the district.”
The Choctaws trailed 22-0 at the half Friday night and scored their only points of the night in the third quarter on a 77-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Ja’Quarius McGee, followed by the two-point conversion.
“I’m proud of the young guys,” Hargett noted.
Statistically, Issac Day led West Tally in rushing with 17 carries for 92 yards. McGee had 16 totes for 56 yards, Tony Young eight for 45 yards and Roddarius Moss 12 for 37.
The Choctaws’ defensive charge was led by Moss, who made 11 solo stops, four assists, one sack and three tackles for a loss.
Day added seven solos and two assists, McGee had six individual tackles (along with causing and recovering a fumble and snaring an interception) and Lester Westbrook added four. Kelvonta Garner and Donovon McCord had three apiece in the game.
This week, the Choctaws open a three-game home stand by hosting the 2-3 Coldwater Cougars, fresh from a 64-6 shellacking at the hands of 5-1 South Delta.
“We’ve watched a couple of films on them,” Hargett said of Coldwater. “It’s going to be a tough game. We just want to get better every week ... and get back to where we were before the pandemic hit as a football program.”
