WEBB — It was deja vu all over again as the Charleston High School Tigers defeated the West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws 42-6 Friday night to claim a 34th straight win in this cross-county varsity football rivalry series dubbed the “Battle of the Golden Egg.”
It was also the season opener for both teams.
While grading it as “a good overall performance” by the Tigers, CHS head coach LaDon Taylor added, “There’s a lot of things ... we need to get better at and get fixed.”
Taylor lauded his players for tuning out the noise leading up to the game.
“That’s always an issue, especially in a rivalry game,” he noted. “I’m glad ... the guys didn’t buy into that and just worried about playing the game on Friday night and not playing it Monday through Thursday on social media.”
WTHS head coach Shane Hargett said it was a “very disappointing” loss, adding, “We actually matched up pretty well against them this year and just dropped the ball.”
Hargett was speaking figuratively, but it also applied literally, as the Chocs logged a total of five turnovers in the game. The Tigers had none.
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In a rare feat, Charleston’s special teams scored on punt and kickoff returns.
“People take special teams for granted, but to have a punt return and a kickoff return [for touchdowns], that’s huge!” noted Taylor, who said his team has special teams drills during every practice.
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During the opening drive of the second half, a Choctaws assistant coach was ejected by officials after he ran onto the field shouting in protest of a ruling that said the Charleston quarterback’s arm was going forward when he was hit and lost the ball on the previous play. The ball was scooped up by a West Tally defender inside the CHS 40, but the play was ruled an incomplete pass instead of a fumble.
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The score was 22-0 at the end of the first quarter and 36-0 at halftime and at the close of the third period.
By mutual consent of both head coaches, the entire second half was played with a continuously running clock.
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The Choctaws gave the home fans something to celebrate and avoided a shutout when Ja’Quarius McGee scored on a 23-yard toss sweep against Tigers reserves at 10:02 in the fourth quarter. Charleston made a wholesale defensive change before the two-point try and subsequently stuffed the run play.
On the ensuing kickoff, Charleston’s Quentin Carter answered with a 76-yard return for a touchdown. West Tally’s Arlanders Stovall batted down the ball on the conversion pass attempt.
Rod Obannon passed for two touchdowns — a 53-yarder to Dre Riley at 6:52 in the first quarter and a 39-yarder to Omar Wilson at 11:29 in the second. He hit Jaylon Brooks for a two-point conversion after the first.
Latese Edwards ran for a 7-yard score at 4:48 in the first period. Little more than a minute later, after a West Tally fumble, Carter exploded for a 33-yard touchdown run, then tacked on the two-pointer on a personal carry.
Riley snared his second touchdown of the game on a 30-yard punt return with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter. Edwards carried for the conversion.
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Statistically for Charleston, Obannon completed 5-of-6 passes for 132 yards and the two scores.
Riley had two receptions for 67 yards, Wilson one for 39, Terrence Marco one for 16, Buddy Hill one for 10 and David Ray one for a 5-yard loss.
Carter led the Tigers with three carries for 65 yards. Corterrius Johnson had five totes for 38 yards and Latese Edwards three runs for 17.
For West Tally, Isaac Day completed none of five passes while also having two balls intercepted — one each by Riley and Devon Olive.
Day led the Choctaws in rushing with 10 carries for 65 yards. McGee had seven totes for 38 yards and Tristan Hill six runs for 29.
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As of Tuesday, West Tally had not posted defensive stats, but Charleston reported that Timothy Kirk Jr. led the Tigers in tackles with three solos and one assist. Quinterrius Goliday had two solos and one assist. Tackles for a loss were notched by Riley, Omar Wilson and Kelby James, who had one apiece.
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Friday, Sept. 2, Charleston will host North Pontotoc at Tiger Stadium. West Tallahatchie will welcome Greenville O’Bannon to Choctaw Stadium in Webb.
North Pontotoc is fresh off a 43-7 thrashing of Class 1A Tupelo Christian Prep.
“Those guys are really well coached,” Taylor said of the Vikings. “Definitely, the level this week will be stepped up another notch. ... As we go on, things are going to get tougher every week, and we have to be tougher.”
The O’Bannon Greenwaves were defeated 14-0 by Coahoma County last week.
“They’ve got some big kids and they’re going to be physical,” Hargett said. “One thing we didn’t do that disappointed us Friday night is, we’ve got to get more physical.”
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COACH TALK: Clearing out the notebook
CHS head coach LaDon Taylor:
"I'm proud of our young guys, our young freshmen who actually stepped up and gave us some meaningful minutes: Marcus Flowers, Quentin Carter and Devon Olive. Those three freshmen, I think they're going to be really special. They performed well. Olive had an interception, Carter had two touchdowns and then Flowers is a young back who is going to be really good for us. He's just one guy who will hit it right up in the hole, regardless. It's hard to find those guys. Most of them want to run outside. Flowers is a bruising back that we need going forward. Our senior running back, Corterrius Johnson, had a good game as well."
On special teams:
"Special teams are really the most important part of it. People get too caught up in the offensive side and the defensive side, but being real good on special teams is that one thing that just puts you over the top, especially going into the playoffs. ... We try to pride ourselves on working on special teams every day. Talking to a lot of different coaches, I just felt like it was something that we needed to make a priority, and not just work on special teams once a week or something like that. So, every day, we try to go over our special teams stuff."
Can't rest on our laurels:
"Once we finish one task, we've got to get our mindset ready to go to the next one and be prepared for the opponents to be better every week."
WTHS head coach Shane Hargett:
"We're still young, but we're going to get there and just try to get better every week."
What was that formation?
"We thought we had a good game plan, and we actually did offensively. We kind of threw them a curve ball. They traditionally have had a little bit of trouble if you're shifting and stuff, so we lined up in kind of an unorthodox formation — I call it the centipede — and we just shifted real quick on the line of scrimmage."
On the Choctaws' mishaps in the game:
"We had four or five turnovers and penalties that just shot us in the foot all night. We definitely learned a lot from it. ... Going through film study with the guys, we pointed out some of that."
On the ejection of new Defensive Coordinator Allen Spurlock:
"He's real passionate. He got a little fired up. ... Coach Spurlock is a local guy, lives around Sharkey Road. He's familiar with the community. Very passionate. The kids like him. He's doing a great job so far."
