MEADVILLE — The Jefferson County High School Tigers finished in second place in MHSAA Region 7-3A after they defeated the Franklin CountyHigh School Bulldogs 28-6 Friday night.

Jefferson County (6-2, 3-1) racked up 370 yards on the ground. ZacharyFord led the way with 96 yards on only four carries while quarterbackGailrontae Fells had 72 yards on just four carries. Jaheime Herrington had two short touchdown runs in the second quarter that helped give the Tigers a 22-6 halftime lead.

Limarvin Smith Jr. and Nathaniel King each had a four-yard TD run.

Smith Jr. was also the Tigers’ leading receiver with one catch for 39yards.

Jefferson County scored first on Smith Jr.’s TD run and DomoniqueGaines ran in for the two-point conversion at the 10:12 mark of thefirst quarter. It would remain 8-0 until Herrington’s two TD runs broke the game open.

Franklin County (1-9, 1-3) had all kinds of trouble running the ballon the Tigers’ defense. The Bulldogs finished with 12 total rushingyards on 22 carries. So they went to the passing game, with moderate success.

Charles Hunt went 7-for-13 passing for 169 yards, including a 60-yardTD pass to Darion Jackson with 6:09 left in the fourth quarter. JaquanBrown was 6-for-10 for 47 yards. Both Hunt and Brown threw an interception. Jackson ended up with five receptions for 123 yards.

Defensively for Jefferson County, Daron Wright had nine tackles and one interception while Ford had nine tackles, three of them for a loss, and Javarious Austin had an interception.

Franklin County’s defense was led by Tyler Seals with 10 tackles whileClay Wright had eight tackles and Keahve Brown had six tackles.

Despite the loss, Franklin County will be in the Class 3A South StatePlayoffs as the Region 7-3A No. 4 seed and will be on the road in the first round probably against Region 6-3A champion Velma Jackson at 7p.m. Friday.

Meanwhile, Jefferson County will be the Region 7-3A No. 2 seed becauseof its loss earlier this month to Wilkinson County. Both teams were3-1 in region play. The Tigers will host a first-round game nextFriday at 7 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.

Wilkinson County 34, Morton 7

MORTON — Apparently, Wilkinson County High School did not want to have a week off before the MHSAA Class 3A South State Playoffs began. And so the Wildcats went on the road and defeated the Morton High SchoolPanthers 34-7 Friday night.

Oddly enough, this game was not even on the Wildcats’ schedule whenthe 2018 season began.

Wilkinson County was only up 14-7 on a struggling Morton team athalftime before scoring 20 points in the second half while its defenseshut out the now 3-8 Panthers.

Wilkinson County (8-2) will be the Region 7-3A No. 1 seed and will host a first-round game in the MHSAA Class 3A South State Playoffs against a team to be determined.