OXFORD — LaDon Taylor’s prayer was answered.
Early last week, in the lead-up to the Friday, Dec. 1, Class 2A football state championship game, the fourth-year Charleston High School head coach had said, “My prayer is that we can get this done for the city of Charleston to show them how much we love them and appreciate them.”
Mission accomplished.
CHS defeated Heidelberg 26-22 to end the season 13-2. Heidelberg finished 11-4.
And the drought is over.
Since winning the Class 3A state crown in 2011, CHS had fallen short in five return trips, losing four of them by a combined total of 15 points. Last year, in the Tigers’ third season in Class 2A, Scott Central won it going away.
That Charleston was able to climb the mountain for a second straight year and reach the pinnacle in 2023 led Taylor to proclaim, “God is good, I’m overjoyed and I’m proud of my coaches and my team.”
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Taylor had the added emotional lift of the presence of his father and mother Friday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the Ole Miss campus.
In 2022, his dad, former longtime Charleston Middle School basketball coach Roosevelt Taylor, suffered a stroke on the day before the Tigers left for the state championship game at Southern Miss. His parents stayed behind, compounding his anxiety before, during and after the game.
Not this year.
“This year, my dad and mom were there with me to see the game,” the coach said. “To get it done for them, because they’ve been very supportive of me, and for this city — knowing how bad the city wanted another championship — it was an emotional roller coaster. I’m not sure [the city] realized how bad we as coaches wanted to give it to them.”
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After forcing Heidelberg into a three-and-out to start the game, CHS responded with an eight-play, 71-yard drive that featured five Marcus “Deuce” Flowers runs for 28 yards and two Devon Olive to Deondre Riley passes totaling 32 yards. Facing third-and-3 at the Oilers 11, Olive passed to Kashwaun Drain, who caught the ball around the 3 and twisted and stretched his way across the end zone for the 11-yard TD. The conversion run failed, but Charleston led 6-0 at 8:06 in the first.
Heidelberg muffed the ensuing kickoff, and Don Harris recovered for CHS at the Oilers’ 39-yard line. Five plays later, facing third-and-3, Olive hit Riley for a 14-yard touchdown. Earlier in the drive, Olive had connected with Riley for 20 yards. The conversion failed, but the Tigers were up 12-0 at 5:55.
The Oilers responded quick, fast and in a hurry, when on the first play of their next possession, running back Chase Craft exploded up the middle and showed breakaway speed en route to a 65-yard touchdown. The conversion failed, but Heidelberg had drawn to within 12-6 with 5:34 left in the first act.
On the second play of the next drive, Olive found a wide-open Riley, who dropped what would have been a certain 61-yard TD. It was a rare drop for Riley, who ended with six receptions for 134 yards and one touchdown to win game MVP honors.
With fourth-and-10 at their own 34, Charleston dropped back to punt for the first time. The ball was snapped over Drain’s head and the Oilers took over at the CHS 25.
Despite their best starting field position of the game, Heidelberg would be unable to cash in. A fourth-and-inches at the 2-yard line became a fourth-and-6 after a false start, and then a fourth-and-11 after a delay of the game. A pass into the end zone was tipped away by Drain and the Tigers took over at their own 13 with 11:55 in the second quarter.
Charleston mounted what would be a nine-play, 86-yard drive, with Olive launching a perfect 58-yard pass to Riley, who never broke stride, to set up first down at the 18. A couple of Flowers runs and an encroachment call on the Oilers pushed the ball to the 1. On second-and-goal from there, Latese Edwards carried the ball, appearing momentarily to score, before Heidelberg cornerback Alrekus Graves emerged with the football and raced the opposite direction for what would be ruled a 99-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Craft carried for the two-point play, giving the Oilers their first lead of the game, 14-12, with 8:01 remaining in the half.
“That play was gut-wrenching, to say the least, to watch that on the sideline,” said Taylor. “We felt like our guy had already broken the plane of the goal line and then the ball was knocked out.”
The coach said the momentum-turning play could have had a deflating effect on his team. But they were focused.
“One of the last things I said to the team before we took the field at the start of the game was, something bad is going to happen. How do we respond? That’s more important than anything.”
The Tigers rallied, marching the ball 67 yards in eight plays to score on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Olive to Omar Wilson. Edwards ran in the conversion, as CHS regained the lead, 20-14, with 5:10 left in the first half.
“I thought that was good for our kids to not drop their heads, to just move to the next play and to understand, ‘OK, they just scored on us, so we have to score.’ I was proud of them for that,” said Taylor. ...“That shows your perseverance, your character. I have to say that our kids responded the right way, when we needed them to the most.”
The CHS defense clamped down, with Zack Kimble, Montra Sanford and Edwards getting in on a sack of Craft for a 8-yard loss, turning what had been a third-and-12 at the Heidelberg 49 into a fourth-and-20 at the Oilers’ 41. The ensuing short punt gave CHS the ball at their own 49.
The Tigers marched 51 yards in six plays, with Flowers covering the final 15 on a run up the gut. The conversion run came up short, but Charleston led 26-14 with 25 seconds left before halftime.
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Charleston’s opening drive of the third quarter carried them 34 yards in six plays before a fourth-and-3 pass at the Heidelberg 26 fell incomplete with 9:35 in the third.
The Oilers, facing fourth-and-3 at their own 34, chose to run rather than punt, and the Tigers’ D stopped them 1 yard short of the first down.
CHS launched a nine-play drive. A 16-yard TD run by Riley was nullified by a holding call, and the Tigers eventually turned the ball over on downs at the Heidelberg 16 with 4:04 left in the third.
The Oilers went three-and-out and the Tigers mounted a six-play drive that ended with a fourth-and-7 punt attempt at the Heidelberg 39-yard line. However, Drain was unable to get the punt off, and the Oilers took over at their own 46.
Julius Bradley reeled off a 29-yard run to the Charleston 25. On the ensuing play, Craft was sacked by Edwards for a 10-yard loss. However, facing second-and-20, Craft connected with Bradley on a 35-yard TD pass. Craft ran in the conversion, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 26-22 with 10:28 left in the fourth quarter.
Three suspenseful drives would chew up the remaining time on the clock.
The Tigers punted after a seven-play drive that left them facing fourth-and-14 at the Heidelberg 45. Drain’s angled kick went out of bounds at the Oilers 12 with 6:57 remaining.
In six plays, Heidelberg pushed the ball from their own 12 to the Charleston 30, where they faced third-and-1 with 3:25 left in the contest.
CHS middle linebacker Kameron Andrews then made what arguably was the biggest defensive play of the game for the Tigers when he knifed into the backfield and pancaked Craft for a 2-yard loss that set up fourth-and-3 at the 32 with 2:49 left.
“Kameron has made plays like that quite a bit this year,” said Taylor. “In that particular moment, we had to have that play. ... Sometimes, when the guard pulls, that mike linebacker has to fill that gap right now. And that’s what happened. When that guy pulled, Kam filled that gap so quick they couldn’t get there to block him. That was a huge play.”
On that fourth-and-3 play, Craft dropped back and launched a pass that fell incomplete at about the Charleston 10-yard line, and the ball went over on downs with 2:42 remaining.
“My heart is racing at that point,” said Taylor, “because I know they’ve got a couple of timeouts and we have to get at least two first downs to finish this deal.”
The coach credited offensive coordinator Myers with doing “a great job of understanding what we had to get done at that point. Passing the ball just wasn’t an option, because we needed that clock to run. So we had to get into some of our better run play stuff at that moment.”
On the first play, Flowers, who ended up with a season-high 40 carries for 198 yards, got the call and gained 15 yards to the CHS 47. Heidelberg spent its remaining timeouts after back-to-back plays on which Flowers netted 3 and 2 yards, respectively.
Flowers carried for a 2-yard run on third-and-5, leaving fourth-and-3 at the Heidelberg 46.
“We’ve got a 40-second play clock, so at that point I told coach Myers I was going to let some clock run,” explained Taylor. “I went over by the ref and talked to him and let him know I was going to get a timeout with 1 second on the play clock.
“While I’m waiting for that, I’m thinking, the next decision would be the biggest of them all. Do we go for it, or do we go ahead and punt it?”
After a recently botched punt attempt, and with the Oilers having shown some momentum on their last drive, Taylor said he decided the best move was to go for it.
After the timeout with 1:03 remaining, the Tigers knew what they were going to do.
“Deuce Flowers was going to be the guy ... to have the ball in his hands, because I needed someone who, if it was not there, was going to put his head down and try to make it there, worst-case scenario,” said Taylor. “We couldn’t have an issue where we handed it off and you’re trying to do a lot of cutting and running sideways. This has to be straight ahead and get 3 yards for a state championship. That’s exactly what I said to them in the huddle. And then coach Myers got the formation that we needed, and he called the play.”
Flowers, a sophomore, added the exclamation point with an 11-yard run to the 35.
“Once we executed that ... the weight of the world kind of came off of me a little,” said Taylor. “It was just great, with almost everybody in Charleston sitting behind me, to have the feeling of knowing that we gave them all that we could give them this year, and just hearing them cheer and be happy for our guys, it was an emotional time.”
On the last play, Olive took a knee in victory formation.
A sophomore, Olive completed 13-of-18 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns and was named the College Savings Mississippi Player of the Game.
Wilson had four catches for 58 yards, Drain three grabs for 15 yards.
