Who said South Panola has boring games?

Anyone who saw the Friday game between South Panola (8-0 overall, 4-0 district) and the Tupelo Golden Waves (4-3 overall, 3-1 district) would change his tune.

Tiger senior wide receiver Roderick Jefferson was the hero of the night with three touchdown receptions from senior quarterback Leroy Diggs.

This air game of 129 yards helped rout the Golden Eagles in homecoming 35-9.

Jefferson caught touchdown passes of 25, 38 and 12 yards in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively. He had 105 reception yards on the night on six passes.

Before all that happened, Tupelo had the upper hand in the first quarter and led 9-0 at the end of the quarter.

Before a stunned visiting Tiger crowd which filled the visitor seats to capacity, Tupelo got on the scoreboard on a controversial safety call.

South Panola was down on its own two yard line after a punt. Diggs handed off to junior tailback Tigg Barksdale who seemed to have brought the ball out of the endzone for forward progress. Then he was pushed back into the endzone and tackled which the officials ruled a safety. Tiger head coach Ricky Woods protested the call, but was unsuccessful in getting it overturned. Tupelo was up 2-0 with 9:30 on the first quarter clock.

Tupelo further stunned the Tiger crowd when the punt returner dodged the Tiger defenders and raced 78-yards for a touchdown. With the PAT, Tupelo led 9-0 with 26 seconds left in the quarter.

Tupelo had tried to push its lead further, but Tiger senior linebacker Kevin Young blocked a 34-yard field goal attempt with 7:30 left in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, South Panola fumbled and Tupelo recovered with 9.4 seconds left on their own 43 yard line. That possession ended in a punt.

South Panola took over possession with 9:10 left in the first half on its own 41 yard line. The Tigers moved the ball to the Tupelo 25 yard line in eight plays.

With 6:22 left in the first half, Diggs connected with Jefferson on his first touchdown reception. The PAT by David Renfroe was wide right and Tupelo still led 9-6.

South Panola got the ball back with 4:18 left in the half and was threatening to score with less than a minute left in the half. The Tigers used its last timeout with 1:25 left. Tupelo’s defense kept cutting the Tiger runners short.

On second and goal from the two, Diggs was stopped in the backfield. With 10.39 seconds left in the half, South Panola tried to get the field goal unit on the field, but time expired before the Tigers could put the ball in play. Tupelo led 9-6 at halftime and enjoyed presenting their homecoming court and two queens at halftime.

Starting the third quarter, on third down and 15, Diggs completed a pass to Mario Nash via a deflection from a Tupelo defender for the first down. Unfortunately that possession ended in a punt at the end of the series.

Two Tupelo possessions later, Tupelo was backed up on its own five after a non-returnable punt. On first down from the five, Tiger Marvin Burdette made the tackle in the endzone for a safety for the Tigers with 5:45 left in the third quarter. Tupelo’s lead was cut 9-8.

From then on, the game belonged to the Tigers.

After the kickoff from the punt, South Panola scored on an 18 -yard run by Diggs, to take the lead 14-9. Diggs was not able to convert the two-point conversion.

After the kickoff on first down, Tupelo fumbled and the Tigers’ Tigg Barksdale recovered with 1:11 left in the third on the Tupelo 35.

After being tackled at the 38 on first down, Diggs hooked up with Jefferson for his second touchdown of the evening on a 38-yard pass with 17.6 seconds left in the third quarter. With Renfroe’s PAT, the Tigers led 21-9. At this point, Tupelo’s crowd began to vacate the premises.

In the fourth quarter, on the Tigers second possession, they punted with Tupelo fumbling the return and Tiger Rodney Diggs recovered on the Tupelo 14 yard line.

On third down and seven from the 12, quarterback Diggs found Jefferson for the touchdown reception with 5:20 left in the game. With the PAT, South Panola led 28-9.

On the next Tiger possession, Renfroe entered as quarterback along with the other backup players.

After the punt, Tupelo was on the move again.

Tigg Barksdale stopped that movement with an interception with 1:02 left in the game. He returned it to his own 30 yard line.

The Tigers were not through scoring as sophomore tailback David Conner broke through the Tupelo defense and sprinted for 64 yards to score with 44.9 seconds left in the game. Renfroe’s PAT was good for the 35-9 Tiger win.

The Tigers had 129 passing yards on seven of 14 completions and 259 rushing yards for a total of 388 offensive yards.

Tupelo had 135 total offensive yards including 82 rushing yards.

Leading the Tigers in rushing was Diggs with 104 yards on 25 carries and one touchdown. Other rushers include Conner, 64 yards, one carry, one touchdown; Tigg Barksdale, 58 yards, 16 carries; Jeramie Griffin, 23 yards, 8 carries; and Reuben Corley, 11 yards, two carries.

Also receiving the ball was Mario Nash for 24 yards on one catch.

Renfroe punted the ball seven times for 241 yards, averaging 34.4 yards per punt. His longest was 40 yards.

The Tigers have one more regular season home game. Friday they will celebrate homecoming with the theme Superheros. Southaven will come to town after a 14-3 loss to Starkville.

In other 1-5A action Friday, Grenada defeated Columbus 26-6 and Olive Branch defeated Horn Lake 55-16.

Region 2-5A had some interesting matches. Clinton (7-0 overall, 5-0 district) remains the only undefeated team in that region after knocking off then undefeated Northwest Rankin (6-1 overall, 3-1 overall) 37-28. Madison Central defeated Provine 28-14.

In 4A, West Point came from behind to defeat Shannon 27-18 and Northeast Lauderdale upset No. 10 ranked Lafayette County 34-21.

The South Panola freshman football team defeated DeSoto Central 20-12 Thursday, October 12 at Tiger Stadium.

DeSoto Central scored the first 12 points, but the Tigers scored 20 straight points to secure the victory. The Tiger comeback started in the first half, when running back Dominique Carrothers (#21) scored the first of his two touchdowns.

DeSoto Central tried to retaliate, but on a critical 4th and goal play, Desmond Robinson (#2) and Devin Clark (#71) stuffed the DeSoto Central ball carrier.

The second half began with a little trickery, as DeSoto Central attempted an onside kick, which bounced around like a pinball before Brian Maxwell (#34) recovered.

The Tigers played better in the second half. In the third quarter, linebacker Jeremy Patterson (#7) recovered a DeSoto fumble near the DeSoto 20 yard line.

After some hard carries by fullback Nicholas Parker (#9), Carrothers scored his second touchdown to tie the ball game.

After that, DeSoto Central could not generate much offense. In the 4th quarter, defensive linemen Devin Clark and Elton Smith stuffed a DeSoto Central carrier for a loss on 4th down.

The momentum carried over to the offense, which put together a great drive powered by the running of Mandarius Armstead (#3) and Nicholas Parker.

The winning touchdown was scored on a trick play – a halfback pass from Armstead to Ray Tucker with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

The last DeSoto Central drive was snuffed by a Desmond Robinson interception, which sealed the victory for the Tigers. In his post game comments to the team, Coach Mike Fair praised the players for their teamwork and perseverance. Overall, it was an excellent performance by the South Panola freshman squad.

Well, your Uncle Bob just got out of prison again.

Most readers will recall that Betsy and I both work (actually, it ain’t really work!) in the Kairos International Prison Ministry, a 30+ year-old ministry that has been in Mississippi 14 years, beginning at Parchman. Now we are in both Men’s and Women’s institutions at Pearl (CMCF), just this year started Kairos in the South Miss. prison at Leakesville, and have started a ministry to the families of incarcerated people called Kairos Outside.

The prison I just got out of was the Women’s Unit at CMCF, where the Kairos weekend was led by a lady with the unlikely team nickname of "Montezuma."

When God is allowed to be free to operate in such a ministry as Kairos – and I know He is like that in many churches and other ministries today – it is truly amazing how things are tied together.
"What a coincidence!" has become a tongue-in-cheek observation when stuff happens: like, when I was leaving home Tuesday Betsy prayed over me in the driveway and used the phrase "protect them with a hedge of angels, and bind Satan."

An hour later, 35 miles south in the driveway of a lady with whom I was riding because she was taking her church van for team transportation into the prison each day, her husband used exactly the same phrase, to the word. It was like Betsy had maybe called Paul and said, "Okay, I said it thisaway. Write it down and do likewise!"

But they don’t even know one another. Yet when Jan and I got back to her house on Saturday night, Paul had surprised her with a new dog pen and a blonde Lab puppy.

She jokingly said, "I ought to name her Kairos." When Betsy had been Rector of Women’s Kairos #12 in 2004, she got a black Lab puppy immediately after the weekend, and named the pup Karo (which is what many inmates call the ministry).

Betsy has black hair. Montezuma is a blonde.

Another surprise occurred when the Kitchen Team which I was on (the men cook for Women’s Kairoses, the women cook for Men’s Kairoses) composed a song to the Inside Team. Little did we know that the Inside Team had composed a song to us: and we both used the tune to "Victory Chant"!

One of our verses went, "Hail, Hail, Montezuma; How powerful you are!" It also included the line, "Blonde Rectors have more fun!"

This was certainly so during the four days of Kairos, when 49 free-world women went into prison each day for an evangelistic retreat with 42 Residents of CMCF. In Kairos, we ask for the "Negative Leaders" within the prison community: the ripple effect of even a negative leader’s conversion goes a lot farther.

As a result, the recidivism rate for inmates who participate in Kairos is about 15 percent, as opposed to about 80 percent otherwise. An unintended result for the ministry is that the prisons authorities have found that security requirements for a unit are reduced by as much as 50 percent after Kairos has begun in an institution.

See, we hold a Kairos retreat every six months, and return to the prison every second Saturday of each month for a 3-hour reunion.

In case you decide to contact your Uncle Bob to volunteer to work a Kairos retreat yourownself, I won’t reveal a lot of the happenings of Montezuma’s weekend, except to say that it was one of the most spiritual such retreats that I have served on.

With a nine-person kitchen team that included two Kairos-graduate women who have been free for years, yet choose to voluntarily return to prison to serve their former companions, we had several hour-long prayer and share sessions that we’ll not forget.

And during one of those sessions, one of those Kairos grads was sharing about how hard it had been for her to forgive the man who had molested her as a child. As she neared the end of her testimony, one of our "runners" returned from the prison with a packet of prayer requests, which he dropped in front of me.

As P.K. ended her tale, I opened the first request, then handed it to her:

"It is so hard for me to forgive the man who molested me when I was just a child" the incarcerated woman had written.

"What a coincidence!" I exclaimed to P.K. softly. Montezuma’s Kairos was like that for the whole four days, starting with prayers and ending with puppies.

Mississippi State sophomore cornerback Derek Pegues was one of the heroes of the hour for the Bulldogs Saturday in the 35-3 homecoming win over Jacksonville State.

Pegues put the first two scores on the board for the Bulldogs with an interception returned 26 yards for a touchdown with 14:22 left in the first quarter.

Later in the half, he returned a punt 81 yards for a touchdown with 11:40 left in the second quarter. With the two PATs, Mississippi State led 14-3 at halftime.

Pegues is second in the SEC with kickoff return yards. Pegues intercepted a pass against LSU last week that he also returned for a touchdown.

Saturday, Miss. State will be on the road to face the other SEC Bulldogs for a SEC matchup in Athens, Ga. between the hedges in Sanford Stadium. Kickoff is noon.

Georgia was ranked No. 16 in the polls before Saturday’s 24-22 loss to Vanderbilt. Georgia had barely pulled out a 14-9 win over Ole Miss earlier this season. Ole Miss defeated Vanderbilt last week in Oxford 17-10.

Ole Miss lost a close SEC match to Alabama in overtime. This conference game was neck-and-neck throughout, but Alabama was able to escape at home with a 26-23 win.

Ole Miss was held to a field goal in overtime, while Alabama was able to score a touchdown for the win.

Ole Miss will be back on the road Saturday to Fayetteville, Ark. to take on the Razorbacks at 11:30 a.m. The game will be televised on Lincoln Financial (formerly JP Sports).

Rebel defensive lineman Peria Jerry of Courtland suffered a groin injury and is still questionable for the upcoming game.

Former Tiger standout Rodney Gray is seeing some serious playing time with the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. Gray had three receptions for 12 yards in the 31-27 victory over Houston Saturday.

Southern Mississippi will travel to Virginia Tech for a 6 p.m. game this Saturday.

The North Delta Green Wave (5-3 overall, 2-1 district) put a whipping on the 2A Lee Academy Cougars on the W. H. "Bill" Gerrard Field in Marianna, Ark. Friday night.

The Green Wave’s non-district 33 – 6 win over the Cougars was the third straight year that the Green Wave have defeated the Cougars.

The win was just great for the Green Wave team who beat the Cougars all across the board. The Green Waves ended the game with 388 yards total offense and 58 yards in turnover return yards to give them 446 in all which included eight first downs and seven penalties for 75 yards.

Junior quarterback Jim Tyler Dalrymple had five punts for 237 yards for an average of 47 yards per punt.

"That’s incredible," said head coach Richard Russo. "On the kickoffs, Jim Tyler didn’t give them a chance to return them all night because he kicked them high. Evan West, our long and short snapper is doing a great job with that. We haven’t had any bad snaps on the punt all year."

One main key to winning the game for the Green Waves was no turnovers when the Cougars had seven which included five interceptions and two fumbles.

The Green Wave defense really stepped up big. The Cougars threw five interceptions and bringing them down were Dakota Mabry with two, Josh Garrott, Jim Tyler Dalrymple, and Nick Douglas one each.
"One key defense player was Dakota Mabry," said Russo. "He had two interceptions and returned one for a touchdown.

"That was a huge point in the game because they were still in the game at that point," Russo continued. "That is a big time play maker making a big time play."

Russo also praised Dalrymple on defense. Russo said Dalrymple "saved" them twice.

"Once on an interception when they were driving, they threw the fade drop to the tallest receiver and he just went up and got it at his highest point," Russo said. "That is one of the highest point drills that Coach Wilson does with them. and I was glad to see a drill that we do in practice show up in the game. For Jim Tyler to knock that ball lose at the one yard line was just an outstanding play."

Russo said it was one of the best high school plays he had ever seen.

North Delta forced and recovered the two fumbles. Hunter West forced a fumble and Dalrymple forced a fumble which went out of the back of the endzone for a touchback.

Making tackles were Mabry, 10 tackles, two interceptions, one defensive touchdown, two pass breakups; Josh Garrott, 10 tackles, one interception, one fumble recovery, three pass breakups; Britt Lawrence, eight tackles; Douglas, seven tackels, one interception, one pass breakup; Evan West, seven tackles; Dalrymple, five tackles, one interception, one forced fumble, one pass breakup; Cody Edline, three tackles; Britton Crawford, two tackles; Josh Ratliff, one tackle; and Hunter West, one tackle, one forced fumble.

Russo said the offense was running well with four backs logging at least 60 yards each.

"You have to tip the offensive line who played an outstanding game," Russo said.

The leading rusher for the Green Wave was Mabry with 137 yards on 13 carries with three touchdowns. Other rushers include Dalrymple, 11 carries, 112 yards; Nick Douglas, 7 carries, 72 yards, 1 touchdown; and Evan West, 13 carries, 61 yards, 1 touchdown.

The Cougars got on the scoreboard first when Jason Carter caught a five-yard pass from Greg Gibson and the PAT was no good with 4:31 on the clock. The Green Wave came right back and scored when Dakota Mabry took the ball 72 yards into the endzone and the PAT by Jim Tyler Dalrymple was good with 4:15 left in the first quarter. The Green Wave was up 7-6 at the end of the first quarter of the game.

The only scoring in the second quarter came when Nick Douglas took the ball 47 yards for a touchdown with 11:32 on the clock and the PAT by Dalrymple was good to give the Green Wave a 14-6 lead at the half.

The second half of the game was all Green Wave football. Dakota Mabry intercepted the Cougar’s ball with 9:59 on the clock and took it 58 yards into the endzone for another touchdown and the PAT failed to give the Green Wave a 20 – 6 lead. Mabry was on a roll and scored again in the second quarter when he took the ball from 9 yards out into the endzone and the PAT failed again. The Green Wave were up 26-6 at the end of the third quarter. The only scoring in the fourth quarter came with 3:50 left in the game when Evan West scored on a 35 yard run and the PAT by Dalrymple was good to give the Green Wave a 33-6 win over the 2A Lee Academy Cougars.

The Cougars scored first in the game but never scored again. When asked how his team was able to stop the Cougars, he replied with this. "It is impossible to stop their offense because you can’t blitz the guy because as soon as he receives the snap, he gets rid of it," said Russo. "It is the very short high percentage passing. So you better just take good coverage and make good tackles. We did miss more tackles than I would have liked."

Head Coach Richard Russo felt good about the game. "Like I told you going into the game, they had a very impressive offense," said Russo. "They completed 22 passes. They moved the ball well with their short passing attack. Hats off to our defense when the _____ ______ to come up with big plays in the red zone to end their drives. Offensively, we are getting better every week. Our offensive line has made tremendous stride. It has really helped to open up holes for our running backs. Any time that you have 388 yards rushing, it is a very impressive night. That is a team effort between the offensive line, the running backs, and good exchanges by the quarterback."

The Cougars ended the game with 97 rushing yards on 19 carries. In passing, they were 18 of 29 for 222 yards for 319 total offensive yards. They had 355 all purpose yards. They had 13 first downs and four penalties for 30 yards.

The Green Wave will be back at home on Friday night in district play when they host the Bayou Academy Colts.

Do yourself a favor – if you haven’t seen anything in High Definition go deep and get a plasma or DLP and prepare to be amazed. That’s what I did last week and it is fantastic.

I had to leave the day I got it to go to Auburn but I got back in time to see the last of the Tennessee at Georgia game in HD on ESPN.

The detail is so good it really is like being there. Let’s see, I wonder where I send the invoice for this ad I just did? It is great though. It’s just like this new Internet stuff – I think it’s here to stay.

When I’m working with TV at these games it is always interesting to see the inside of the production trailers outside the stadium. They always had over forty monitors in there of various sizes but in the last few years they are making these games available in High Definition. Now they have the High definition monitors in there along with the others and I could tell it was some kind of good to watch.

All the cameras from the hand-helds to the big play-by-play are new to enable HD. I know a regular hand-held camera like you would see a couple of at any given game used to cost in the neighborhood of seventy thousand dollars. I can only imagine what the new HD models run. I bought a HD video camera myself a few months ago for shooting video of Phillip and Richard and even at my level they are astronomical. It sure is fun.

In a recent game that I was in, the team with the ball just couldn’t get a first down right around mid-field.

What you’ve seen many do in those situations is intentionally take a delay of game penalty so they can back up an extra five yards. Then maybe the punter can drop one close to the goal line and pin the opponents deep instead of kicking it into the end zone where they get to start at the 20-yard line.

I was hoping the defending/receiving team to be would simply tell the Referee that they wanted to decline the distance penalty. Many coaches forget that any distance penalty can be declined. There is no option to decline the foul and penalty also since it is a dead ball foul.

The only one I remember seeing do that was Coach Spurrier when he was at Florida. They were playing South Carolina and Lou Holtz took an intentional delay penalty for the extra five yards and Steve declined the distance part. Holtz did it again and Spurrier did the same thing.

Finally, Holtz gave up and just punted the ball and it did end up in the end zone for a touchback, Florida’s ball on the twenty.

It’s not that big a deal and some coaches would rather let them try to punt it close to the goal line to give their return guy a chance to take one all the way back. Coach Spurrier was doing that just to irritate Coach Holtz. Mind games. Those are fun too. See you next week.