The Charleston High School Tigers will host the Leland Cubs in the first round of the state playoffs Friday night. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Charleston (7-3) is the Region 3-2A champion and, therefore, the top seed. Leland (1-8) is the fourth seed in Region 4-2A.
Leland lost a 28-0 decision to Leflore County last week. The Cubs’ only win of the season was a 14-12 decision over Riverside on Oct. 21.
“What we see on film is they have some really good athletes,” said CHS head coach LaDon Taylor. “It’s a good athletic bunch, and we just have to continue to do what we are supposed to do, and be sound offensively and defensively.”
The winner of Friday night’s game will advance to face the victor of this week’s East Union (4-6) at Calhoun City (5-5) contest.
A Charleston win would either bring East Union to CHS or mean a road trip to Calhoun City for the start of the second round on Nov. 11.
Taylor said he has not looked that far ahead, and he encourages his players to do the same.
“During this time of year, I tell our team every Friday night, ‘You have three more guaranteed practices; that’s it. Nothing else past that. So, take advantage of the three practices that we have this week, go out and execute, and maybe we’ll have three more the following week,’” Taylor noted.
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Senior night at Charleston was a happy affair for fans of the Tigers, who defeated the Coahoma County Red Panthers 46-6 in the regular-season finale on Thursday, Oct. 27.
Coahoma County fell to 4-5 but took the 3 seed in Region 3-2A to advance to the playoffs this week.
Taylor said he was proud that the Tigers “got another division championship under our belt.” Charleston earned the regional crown for a second straight year.
“We’re glad we were able to have a really good game, a good showing, and also take care of our senior players that have put blood, sweat and tears into this program,” noted Taylor.
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The Coahoma County win did not produce your average CHS stat sheet.
The Tigers had 20 pass attempts for 224 yards and just 15 rushes for 102 yards. Normally, those figures would be flipped.
“A lot of it had to do with just trying to make sure that we took care of those senior players in the last regular-season game,” Taylor explained. “Jaylon Brooks, had a couple of long pass receptions that in a normal situation we probably wouldn’t be able to do. But he’s a senior, he’s been working his tail off every year, year in and year out, and we just wanted to make sure we rewarded guys like that.”
Senior quarterback and all-around athlete Rod O’bannon started at signal-caller for the Tigers — something he had not done in nearly two months due to an injury.
When asked, Taylor said O’bannon is “pretty close” to being 100%.
O’bannon completed 10 of 14 passes for 139 yards and three passing touchdowns and scored another TD on a run.
“We were able to start him, do some things with him and still be able to play our freshman quarterback some meaningful minutes, as well,” the coach noted. “Rod also went over and played on the defensive side of the ball, as well.”
Freshman QB Devon Olive completed 7 of 10 passes for 85 yards and two TDs.
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O’bannon opened scoring with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Brooks. Marcus Flowers ran in the two-pointer, and CHS led 8-0 with 7:04 in the first quarter.
Coahoma County parlayed a Charleston turnover into a fumble return for a touchdown with 5:38 in the first, but the conversion pass failed.
O’bannon would find paydirt twice more in the first half. He hit Terrence Marco for a 21-yard TD (Flowers ran the conversion) with 4:45 in the first period. O’bannon then scored on a 5-yard run (Flowers again converted) with 4:06 left in the second quarter.
Olive passed to Dre Riley for a 7-yard TD (then passing to Marco for the conversion) with 1:33 remaining, to take a 32-6 lead into the half.
The Tigers closed out scoring in the third quarter on a 24-yard O’bannon TD pass to Riley (Corterrius Johnson ran in the conversion) at 7:48 and on a 25-yard TD pass from Olive to Brooks at 3:15.
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Riley caught six passes for 95 yards, Marco four for 57, Brooks three for 41, Buddy Hill one for 14, Johnson one for 9, Flowers one for 6 and Roger Haywood one for 2.
Leading the ground attack was Johnson, with 10 carries for 61 yards. Flowers had nine rushes for 45 yards, O’bannon two for 17, Riley one for 1 and Elijah Buckley two for 1. Four others had no or negative yardage.
Defensively, Timothy Kirk Jr. led the pack of hungry Tigers with four solo tackles and a sack for a 2-yard loss. Latese Edwards also had four individual stops. Quinterrius Goliday had three solos, an assist and a sack for a 3-yard loss. D.J. Boyd added two solos and one assist. Deondre Riley, Martiquez Latham and Lamarion Brown had two individual tackles apiece.
