WEBB — The West Tallahatchie Choctaws dropped the ball and also dropped a 40-6 decision to the McEvans Warriors here Friday night.
West Tally fell to 3-3 and McEvans improved to 5-1.
“They’re a really good team, and we knew that coming in,” said WTHS head coach Shane Hargett.
Before last week’s game, he had said that the Choctaws would have to play a good football game to compete.
It was anything but.
“We had three turnovers, bad snaps, dropped snaps, plays where we just didn’t execute anything,” noted Hargett. “... It was just disappointing. The outcome could have been a lot different.”
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The Choctaws won the opening coin toss and deferred, kicking off to the visitors.
“About the third or fourth play into the drive, we had an interception by Reggie Walker at our 38 and he took it back to their 43-yard line,” explained Hargett.
Driving the football down the field, the Choctaws scored a touchdown when Isaac Day ran in on a 9-yard trap play off left tackle. The conversion try failed, but the Choctaws had fired the first volley and took an early 6-0 lead.
On their second possession, McEvans was forced to punt.
“We got the ball on our 20, and then something that we had been fortunate with the last three weeks came right back at us,” said Hargett. “On first down, we had a bad snap. On second down, we dropped the snap out of the shotgun. And then on third down we actually fumbled it back to them and allowed them to score.”
The Warriors scored off another West Tally turnover in the second quarter, taking a 14-6 lead at the half.
“We were still very much in the game, and then the wheels just fell off,” Hargett said. “They’re real physical and took a toll on us a little bit. But we got deflated. We had so many chances we couldn’t capitalize on and turned the ball over.”
The Choctaws committed 12 turnovers in the first two games of the season — both losses. They had one turnover in each of the next two games and no turnovers in the fifth game, winning all three of those games.
Despite the loss to McEvans, statistically, Hargett said Tristan Hill completed 4-of-9 passes for 50 yards, Day ran for 71 yards and Ja’Quarius McGee had a total of 88 yards rushing.
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This Friday night, West Tally travels to Tate County to face Coldwater and begin a three-game road stretch, not returning home until Oct. 28.
Coldwater could be just the medicine the Choctaws need to regain their composure.
At 0-5, the Cougars have been outscored 188-18. They have been shut out in four of those five games, including a 52-0 decision last week at South Delta.
“They’re a young team and they’re struggling, kind of like we did last year,” said Hargett. “Of course, if we don’t protect the football, it could be anybody’s ballgame. If we protect the ball, we should come out of there with a pretty good win.”
