Mississippi: Tallulah defeats Wilkinson

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 9, 2003

TALLULAH, La. &045; Wilkinson Christian’s fumble problems were corrected and in the past.

But not forgotten.

The Rams had problems holding on to the football in the second half Friday night in their MPSA Class A playoff opener, and the mistakes allowed Tallulah Academy to take a 19-0 win to end the Rams’ season.

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The Trojans advance the second round of the playoffs against the winner of the winner of Prentiss Christian and Claiborne.

&uot;Turnovers killed us,&uot; WCCA head coach Paul Hayles said. &uot;Basically every time we drove the ball we fumbled it in the second half. It was just just an unfortunate time for it to happen (in the playoffs). Tough thing to shake off.&uot;

The Rams were trailing 6-0 late in the first half when Matt Deville recovered a fumble to set up a drive at the Tallulah 29 that went deep in TA territory thanks to a 24-yard pass from Ruston Cado to Brad Pritchard down to the 5.

Duston Dor’s 4-yard run got the Rams to the 1, but the next play the Rams fumbled it to miss the opportunity to score right before halftime.

The Trojans came out to kick off at the start of the second half, and the Rams muffed it to allow Tallulah to recover. The Trojans drove down 39 yards and scored when Jonathan Duke ran in from 1 yard out for a 12-0 lead with 9:06 left in the third.

The Rams then drove to the Tallulah 13 on their next drive before a fumble ended the threat, and they fumbled twice more in the fourth quarter. Tallulah got a score late in the game when Cade Marsh scored on a 2-yard run with 1:30 left in the game.

The Trojans took the opening kickoff and drove 54 yards before Cade Marsh’s 6-yard TD run gave them a 6-0 lead with 6:15 left in the first.

Franklin 20, Wilkinson 16

WOODVILLE &045; The Bulldogs didn’t play one of their better games of the season, but they were still able to pull out the win to finish undefeated in Region 7-3A.

The win by Franklin County (8-2, 6-0) also knocked the Wildcats (4-5, 2-4) from playoff contention.

&uot;It wasn’t easy,&uot; Franklin County head coach Anthony Hart said.

&uot;We probably didn’t play our best game of the year. I didn’t think we played very well, but we played well enough to win. But we’ll get ready for the playoffs next week and get this behind us.&uot;

Jefferson 30, Port Gibson 16

FAYETTE &045; Avery Hammett scored two touchdowns and two two-point conversions as the Tigers downed the Blue Waves in a Region 7-3A game that also clinched them a playoff spot for the first time in several years.

Hammett scored on a 1-yard run with 14 seconds to go in the first quarter and on a 2-yard run with just eight seconds to go until halftime as the Tigers (6-4, 3-3) jumped out to a 30-8 halftime lead.

Port Gibson (1-9, 0-6) got its points on a 2-yard run by DeIraton Turner in the second quarter and a 14-yard reception by Preston Odoms in the third quarter.

Jefferson County had 222 of its 230 yards of offense on the ground.

Emanuel Collier led the Tigers defensively with 12 tackles and Steven King added nine tackles and a fumble recovery.