The Charleston High School Tigers chewed up the North Side Gators 46-8 Friday night during senior night at Tiger Stadium and will travel to Itta Bena this Thursday to battle Leflore County.
Charleston improved to 7-2 while North Side fell to 7-2.
“We came out and performed pretty good Friday. I was proud of that,” said CHS head coach LaDon Taylor.
However, it was not all moonlight and roses, Taylor was quick to point out.
“Even though the scoreboard looked good, there still were a lot of things that we didn’t do right,” he noted.
Charleston was flagged 14 times for 99 penalty yards.
“Some of those penalties might have hurt us on a drive or stalled out a drive,” Taylor said. “Then there were some assignment issues. The score doesn’t show that, but there were assignment issues that, if we don’t get them fixed, could show up in the future.”
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As is customary, the Tigers’ regular-season finale this week will be played on Thursday instead of Friday.
Charleston will hit the road to battle the 6-3 Leflore County Tigers at Itta Bena. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
“They’re an athletic team across the board and well-coached,” Taylor said of Leflore County, fresh off a 35-0 shutout of O’Bannon. “Every year, it’s a tough game playing those guys.”
Taylor said the Tigers “need all the support that we can get” from fans undecided about traveling to the game. “I know it’s a Thursday night game, but all support would be appreciated.”
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Despite the occasional hiccups, Charleston taped shut the mouth of the Gators Friday night, scoring twice in both the first and second quarters to go up 26-0 at the half.
CHS senior wide receiver Kashwaun Drain had a career night, catching three touchdown passes from Devon Olive for 13, 22 and 39 yards during the first half.
Speaking of Olive, the sophomore QB also rode high in the saddle with a four-touchdown performance that included a 27-yard TD pass to Dre Riley.
Marcus “Deuce” Flowers ran in the Tigers’ only successful two-point play.
North Side finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter on a 15-yard pass play, but Charleston responded in the fourth with a 9-yard Flowers TD run that served as the icing on the cake.
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Statistically for Charleston, Olive completed 12 of 17 passes for 223 yards and the four scores. He was intercepted once. Latese Edwards went 0-for-1 on the night.
Riley had six receptions for 120 yards. All of Drain’s three receptions for 74 yards added points for Charleston. Eric Hampton had one catch for 16 yards, Martiquez Lathan one for 8 yards and Omar Wilson one for 5 yards.
Flowers led Charleston runners with 20 carries for 103 yards. Edwards had three totes for 31 yards, Tim Kirk two for 19, Quentin Carter five for 7 and Olive four for 6.
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Taylor said he wanted to go on the record to laud other members of the Tigers’ coaching staff.
“I’m very appreciative of the assistant coaches, the work that they do, the time that they put in to prepare,” he noted.
“We meet every Sunday to get a game plan together. Those coaches are here every Sunday and they do a great job of getting the plan put in, and they do an even better job of enforcing that plan during the week to prepare our kids. So I really want to just say how much I appreciate our coaches for the effort that they put into this.”
