By Angie Ledbetter

The South Panola Tigers showed what champions do in a come-from-behind 27-6 victory over the Vicksburg Gators Friday night.

The Tigers and the Gators played the premier game of the 46th annual Red Carpet Bowl Classic, following the 21-12 Warren Central win over Clarksdale.

It was as exciting as you could get for South Panola Tiger fans as they saw the team start the season and extend the winning streak to 76.

The Tigers were down 6-0 with less than four minutes left in the first half.

Senior Tiger wide receiver/safety Xavier Lee recovered a fumble with 3:43 left in the half.

Senior quarterback David Renfroe found Lee for a 14-yard touchdown a few minutes later to put the Tigers on the clock for the first time that evening.

The PAT by Renfroe was good for the Tigers’ first lead of the game, 7-6.

Much to Vicksburg’s dismay, the Tiger defense would never relinquish the lead or allow another Gator score.

With this win, Tiger head coach Lance Pogue logged his 100th win as a coach.

At the conclusion of the game, the Tigers received the coveted Red Carpet Bowl Classic trophy for the second straight year.

The Tiger team ended the 2007 season with a trophy and started the 2008 season with on.

Pogue said a lot of people have helped him along the way and he would not be where he is today without the coaches and players with whom he has worked.

“I’m really proud of it but it’s not an individual thing,” he said.  “I always believe that the people that are in there with you on a daily grind are just as or more important than what I am. I’m just a piece of the puzzle and don’t do anymore than anybody else except just try to drive the shift a little bit. It’s meaningful but it doesn’t mean anything this week because we have to try to find a way to win at Clarksdale.”

Quarterback David Renfroe directed the offense to a balance attack with a total offense of 388 yards, 184 rushing and 204 passing.

Renfroe passed for three touchdowns. He completed 10 of 26 passes.

The Tigers struggled somewhat to get the game going in the first quarter. They recovered a Gator fumble with a little over three minutes into the game and attempted a field goal, but it was no good.

With 5:48 on the clock the Tigers fumbled and the Gators recovered it on the Tiger’s 45. The Gators capitalized by scoring a 45-yard run but missed the PAT for the 6-0 lead.

On the kickoff after the Tiger touchdown, the ball deflected off a Gator’s helmet and the Tigers recovered it on the Gator 41.

Seconds later wide receiver Nicklos Brassell caught a 39-yard pass from Renfroe to score. The PAT by Renfroe was good to extend the lead to 14-6 for the Tigers at the half.

Brassell returned the kickoff to the Tiger 34 to start the third quarter. With 10:45 on the clock, Renfroe found Brassell again on a 37-yard touchdown pass. The PAT was good for the 21-6 Tiger lead.

Two plays later, the Gator quarterback was sacked by Kenterris Williams and Tiger’s defense forced a punt.

In the fourth quarter, Tiger linebacker David Conner sacked the quarterback which forced the Gators to punt with 9:32 left in game.

With 4:20 left in game, the Tigers took possession on their own 40 after a long return by Conner.

With 32 seconds left in the game, running back Domonique Carothers scored on a three-yard run. The PAT was blocked but the Tigers got the victory.

The drive was aided by running back Nicholas Parker who took the ball to the three in three plays.

After the game, Pogue told the team that he was proud of them for battling.

“You know like I do that you made entirely too many mistakes,” he said. “Here is the deal, we won but we have got to get better in a lot of areas. We have a lot to improve on and it all starts with me. We’re going to find out what we did wrong and fix it. You know that tonight’s performance will not win a 5A championship but it’s just week one and let’s see how much better we can get next week.”

South Panola did not play up to its capabilities, according to Pogue.

“We knew that our offensive line was a work in progress,” he said. “I thought defensively we made a few plays and caused some turnovers and we just kept battling.  Overall we just did enough to win but not good enough to play for a championship. ”

Pogue was pleased with the air game.

“We have a young guy, (Nicklos) Brassell, who we think has a chance at being really good,” he said. “But we have got to get better running the ball. You can’t make a living with what we did tonight.”

The chores Pogue outlined for this week are get better on the offensive line, get better at eliminating stupid mistakes, penalties and turnovers and get to where they can run the ball.

“It was our first game and we started off slow,” Xavier Lee said. “We have got to get serious now. Coach Pogue told us at halftime to get serious and play the best that we could. We came out and did a little better in the second half.”

Domonique Carothers said Vicksburg came out with all they had and gave them a good fight.

“At halftime we talked about a lot of our mistakes. We have a good team so we stuck together, played hard together and came out with the victory. Biggest area that I think we need to work on is myself. I wasn’t satisfied at all,” Carothers said.

JaPeri Mitchell said, “The defense came out and tried our best to play hard. The coaches were giving the right calls at the right time. It felt real good when I made the interception. I saw it coming the whole way. My knees were kind of bad and I couldn’t really get my speed up to try to score a touchdown but it’s coming next time. Biggest area that I think we need to work on is playing four quarters of ball.”

Nicklos Brassell said, “It felt good to win but we still have a lot to do in practice. We have to work on staying in shape, keep doing what we have got to do and listen to the coach. To stop them, we just dug deep and came out and played.”

Parker was the leading rusher with 160 yards on 20 carries. Carothers had 29 yards on 10 carries and one touchdown.

Brasssell was the leading receiver with 169 yards on receptions. Lee had 35 yards on five receptions and one touchdown.