FRENCH CAMP — The West Tallahatchie Choctaws defeated the French Camp Academy Panthers 16-7 last Friday night.
West Tally improved to 6-2 while French Camp dropped to 0-9, a record that belies the Panthers’ talent level, Choctaws head coach Shane Hargett had noted going into last week’s game.
“A win’s a win,” he said. “Fortunately, we got through homecoming two weeks ago and fall break last week with wins. That’s the worst two weeks of a coach’s season.”
Hargett did lament his team’s execution.
“Coming off fall break, we just were flat,” he noted. “We turned the ball over by fumbling the opening kickoff, and we didn’t cross the 50-yard line until well into the second quarter. But we’re glad to have the win.”
The Choctaws have a short turnaround this week, as they host a Thursday night (Oct. 30) game against the 6-3 Leflore County Tigers. Kickoff is at 7.
It will be the regular-season finale and senior night at Choctaw Stadium in Webb.
With both teams sporting a record of 2-0 in the four-team Region 4-1A, this week’s game will decide the region champion and the runner-up — the first and second seeds — heading into the state playoffs on Nov. 7.
“We’re playing for a championship against a really, really good football team in Leflore County — a perennial Class 2A playoff team that dropped down to 1A. They’re very good,” said Hargett.
The coach added that Leflore County has “four or five really, really, really good skill guys. They’ve got a great running back, a couple of receivers and the quarterback looks really good on film. We’ve got to play football.”
Hargett explained, “We’re very capable of winning the game, but we’ve got to clean up the self-inflicted wounds — turnovers and too many penalties. Those are things that you can get away with against lesser competition, but against even or better, it will beat you every time.”
The coach said senior night festivities for the football players will be held at 6:15.
“We want to make sure that since we’re playing for a championship, we get guys in the field house at halftime in case we need to make adjustments,” he explained.
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There were not a lot of highlights at French Camp, but one of them likely resulted in a pair of school records for West Tallahatchie.
French Camp scored first on a 16-yard pass on fourth-and-2 to go up 7-0 with 2 minutes in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Choctaws found themselves at their own 6-yard line, and a loss on a first-down run play backed them up to the 5. But on second-and-11 from there, QB Kordell Robinson completed a pass to Jamerrius Johnson that resulted in a 95-yard touchdown.
“As far as I know, that is a reception and a passing record at West Tally, as far as the amount of yardage for a touchdown,” Hargett said.
Robinson passed to Cameron Christian for the two-point conversion to give the visitors an 8-7 lead.
The score remained that until 4:11 in the fourth quarter, when the Choctaws’ Johnson broke a 22-yard run for a touchdown to cap a five-play, 63-yard drive. Robinson hit Althavion Hoskins for the two-point conversion.
Robinson was 4-of-5 passing for 104 yards. Johnson had two catches for 100 yards, and Hoskins and Christian has one each for 2.
Johnson led West Tally’s ground game with nine carries for 91 yards. Kelvin Robinson ran seven times for 46 yards and Kordell Robinson five for 47 yards.
In total yards, Johnson led with 191 yards while Kordell Robinson contributed 151 yards.
Defensively, Christian had 18 tackles, including four for a loss. Ledesmond Thomas charted nine tackles, two of which were for a loss and one sack. Kelvin Robinson recorded eight total tackles. Hoskins notched three stops and one tackle for a loss. Corderrius Madden added two tackles, including one for a loss in the game.
