It was a tale of two halves in Ellisville.  The first half consisting of two teams that were not playing very well, and the second half of one team playing remarkably well.  That one team in the second half was the South Jones Braves.

After clinging to a 13-12 lead at halftime, the Braves played lights out offensively and defensively to outscore Natchez 27-6 in the second half. 

“We weren’t able to put it all together tonight,” Natchez coach Roy Rigsby said. “We gave up some deep plays defensively where we have to adjust to make the play.”

South Jones third-string running back Xavier Roberts might have been the only Brave to play a complete game.  After scoring both South Jones touchdowns in the first half, Roberts kept racking up the stats in the second half.

The Braves offense marched down the field on the game’s opening driving. Roberts dealt the first blow of the evening with a 13-yard touchdown run. 

Up 6-0, the Braves defense was dealt a blow of its own. The Bulldogs muscled their way down to the ten-yard line. At that point, Chris Scott found Tydarrius Terrell on a ten-yard slant for a touchdown. A blocked extra point kept things knotted up at 6-6 late in the first quarter.

“Offensively, we moved the ball at times, but we set ourselves back too many times,” Rigsby said.
The Braves offense began to sputter, and the Bulldogs continued to gash South Jones on the ground and through the air.

Scott hooked up with Desmond Dawson on a 39-yard scoring strike to pull ahead 12-6.

The always-resilient Braves would finally catch a break with 1:21 left in the first half. A fumble recovery gave the Braves the ball at midfield, and Will Mitchell found Brandon Gordon down the sideline for a 43-yard completion.

Two plays later, Mitchell found Roberts coming out of the end zone on a wheel route for a touchdown with two seconds remaining in the half. The Ryne Sasser extra point gave the Braves a 13-12 halftime lead. 

Roberts continued his big game on the first drive of the second half. The Braves scat back found the far sideline and cruised into the end zone from 35 yards out. 

The second half quickly turned into the Brandon Gordon show after that.

South’s deep threat wide out hauled in a 25-yard pass from Mitchell with 3:35 remaining in the third quarter. 

Leading 26-12, Gordon high-pointed another Mitchell deep ball and took it to pay dirt from 24 yards out. The Sasser extra point gave the Braves a 33-12 lead early in the fourth. 
Mitchell found Gordon yet again on a 35-yard pass for a touchdown to round out the Braves scoring on the night. 

Scott hooked up with Travion Mcduffie late in the fourth quarter, but it was merely academic at that point. 

South Jones will travel to Wingfield next week, and Natchez will host Wayne County. 

“We did a good job of protecting the ball tonight,” South Jones head coach Cory Reynolds said.  “We made plays tonight, and we have been waiting on that all year.  We have our playmakers doing what they do best at the right time now.”