SARDIS — The West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws led the North Panola Cougars 38-12 at halftime, but then their head coach was transported to an area hospital and the home team mounted an unlikely comeback, sending the visitors back to Webb with a shocking 39-38 defeat.
North Panola improved to 3-3 on the season while West Tally slipped to 4-2.
“We were up 38-12 at halftime, playing pretty good,” West Tally head coach Shane Hargett said Tuesday.
West Tallahatchie High School head football coach Shane Hargett
However, Hargett admitted that his recollections of the Friday night game in Panola County are somewhat fuzzy.
“I remember the opening kickoff of the second half and then everything started spinning,” he said. “I couldn’t stand up. They had to help me over to the bench. The paramedics from the ambulance came to check on me and ended up transporting me to Oxford. In the emergency room there, I’m told, in their words, that I’m ‘extremely, dangerously, severely dehydrated’ due to COVID, which I didn’t even know I had.”
It was in the ER that Hargett received the telephone call informing him of his team’s 39-38 loss.
“It’s hard for me to take that loss. If you’re up 38-12 at halftime, there’s no excuse to lose a football game,” he noted. “It’s one of those freak things that doesn’t happen a lot, but it is what it is.”
Hargett, West Tally’s offensive play-caller, said Tuesday morning that he had not yet returned to work and had not seen the game film.
“One thing I do remember, we didn’t play very good pass defense,” he noted. “Based on what I was told, North Panola just had too many big plays in the second half where we couldn’t defend the pass.”
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West Tally hit paydirt first, with Jamerrius Johnson scoring on a run play to go up 6-0.
North Panola answered on a 57-yard touchdown pass that knotted the game 6-6.
The Choctaws’ Johnson scored when he returned the ensuing kickoff 72 yards to put the visitors on top 12-6.
The Choctaws built the lead to 18-6 at the end of the first quarter on a 39-yard TD pass from Kordell Robinson to his brother, Kelvin Robinson, and extended it to 24-6 early in the second quarter after Kelvin Robinson recovered a fumble.
Midway through the second quarter, the Cougars scored on a 15-yard rush to pull to within 24-12.
Minutes later, West Tally’s Kordell Robinson hit Johnson for a 68-yard TD before running in the two-point conversion to go up 32-12.
The final points of the first half were scored by Kelvin Robinson on a fumble return for a touchdown.
In the second half, North Panola scored touchdowns on passes of 50, 43 and 15 yards, and on a run of 10 yards.
The Choctaws had an opportunity late, driving to the North Panola 15-yard line before turning the ball over on downs with about 2 minutes remaining in the contest.
West Tally was 1-of-6 on two-point conversions in the first half.
“Three of those really, really hurt and were hard to deal with, especially after you found out the final score,” said Hargett. “On three of them, we actually scored the conversion and had penalities to negate them.”
North Panola’s 1-point lead came via a successful PAT kick with about 9 minutes left in the game.
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This week, the Choctaws have an open date, giving them extra time to prepare for their Oct. 17 Region 4-1A opener against Coffeeville on what will be homecoming at Choctaw Stadium in Webb.
“We’ll try to patch up some stuff and just try to keep the momentum going,” said Hargett, whose team had won four of five before last week.
“The preseason, as I call it, is over with,” he added, referring to non-regional games on the schedule that do not impact playoff seeding. “Everything counts now, and everybody is back to 0-0.”
