The Charleston Tigers whipped the Sebastopol Bobcats 56-20 in a second-round home playoff Friday night.
Next up for the men in black and gold is a quarterfinals home match this week against the black and orange Calhoun City Wildcats. Kick- off at Tiger Stadium is at 7.
The Tigers, 10-2 and winners of seven straight games, will compete against the 10-1 Wildcats, who have won six in a row, including a 38-0 romp over Eupora last week.
“It’s a well-coached team and we’ll have our hands full this week,” CHS head coach LaDon Taylor said of the Calhoun City squad.
“They are definitely a running team,” he added. “They do throw it, but they’re coming in to run the football.”
The Wildcats have averaged 187.5 rushing yards per game this year, but the Tigers are not far behind at 162.7.
Calhoun City has scored 409 points and allowed 65, while Charleston has scored 458 points and allowed 187.
Among common opponents, Riverside fell 52-6 to Charleston and 38-0 to Calhoun City. M.S. Palmer lost 58-12 to the Tigers and 44-6 to the Wildcats.
Charleston’s two losses have been to now 4-8 Clarksdale and now 11-0 Cleveland Central, while Calhoun City’s lone defeat was at the hands of now 11-1 East Webster.
Taylor said he is glad to be playing this week’s game at home rather than on the road, and he encouraged fans of the Tigers to turn out in force.
“It would be great if all of our fans would show up and cheer the guys on and let them know that they’re supporting them,” the coach said.
This week’s winner will advance to face the victor of this week’s 9-3 Northside at 5-7 Union matchup. Union defeated Leflore County 36-14 last week while Northside topped Philadelphia 26-6. The Nov. 29 game will be for the Class 2A North Mississippi title and to determine who goes on to state.
Charleston is in the hunt for the program's first-ever back-to-back state championships after winning it all in 2023.
— * —
Taylor said he was “really proud of the defense” and their work to contain Sebastopol’s Adarius McDougle, who is the Class 2A “Mr. Football.”
McDougle provided most of the Bobcats’ offense, scoring on touchdown runs of 40, 41 and 73 yards.
“He is a really good player, and I knew going into the game that he was going to make a couple of plays, but we wanted to try to limit him as much as possible,” Taylor said.
Early in the first quarter, the Bobcats faked a punt on fourth-and-4, but the CHS D stopped them 1 yard short at their own 41. On Charleston’s first offensive play of the game, Marcus “Deuce” Flowers Jr. covered those 41 yards by racing untouched, then running for the conversion.
It was the first of four touchdowns for Flowers, who also had rushing scores of 4, 5 and 7 yards.
Quarterback Devon Olive connected with Quentin Carter on an 8-yard slant pass for a touchdown. Flowers ran for the two-point play.
After Charleston had taken a 40-6 lead with 10:15 in the third quarter, lightning struck for the Bobcats on their ensuing drive when Kameron Andrews tipped a pass and Latese Edwards plucked it out of the air for a 7-yard pick-six TD. Olive hit Brandon Henderson for the conversion.
Early in the fourth quarter, Carter burst through the line untouched on a 41-yard touchdown run and Edwards waltzed into the end zone for the conversion.
Charleston was successful on all seven of their two-point conversion attempts. Edwards had four two-point runs and Flowers added two.
The blowout win could have been even greater, as the Tigers were stopped a couple of times inside the Sebastopol red zone on back-to-back fourth-and-7 plays that resulted in sacks.
Taylor said he obviously was happy with the win, but he noted that the Tigers have “a lot of things ... to clean up, offensively, defensively and on special teams.”
The head coach also lauded his assistant coaches for “the hard work they put in day in and day out, helping to get our kids prepared every week.”
