By Angie Ledbetter

The South Panola Tigers (5-0) continued their winning streak to 80 straight games by defeating the Horn Lake Eagles 34-7 in the first district game of the season.

The Eagles struggled in the game to stop the Tiger’s offense that put up 460 total yards.  

One player that the Eagles defense was not able to stop was running back Nicholas Parker who rushed 17 times for 202 yards and scored three touchdowns.

The Tigers had a second and eight on the Eagle 34-yard line and Parker scored the first points on the game with 8:01 in the first quarter. With the PAT by David Renfroe, the Tigers led 7-0.

Defensive back LaReco Lee intercepted an Eagles’ pass and returned it 28 yards to help set up the next touchdown. With 5:14 on the clock, Parker scored from one-yard out. The PAT failed, and the Tigers had a 13-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Defensive players who stood out were Ortiss Robertson, JaPeri Mitchell and Devin Clark.

Running back Dominque Carothers scored on a two-yard run to give the Tigers a 20-0 lead with 5:40 in the second quarter after the PAT.

Parker scored again with 44 seconds left in the half when he took the ball from four yards out. The Tigers led 27-0 at the half.

The last score by the Tigers came at the 6:01 mark in the third quarter when Renfroe connected with Nicklos Brassell for 20 yards. With the PAT, the Tigers led 34-0.

A few minutes later, the Eagles answered with a 73-yard connection from quarterback Brent Mayo to Bakari Trott for their only score of the game.

With four minutes remaining in the third quarter, head coach Lance Pogue substituted players to get younger players playing time. Lee Self came in as the Tiger’s quarterback.

Linebacker Dennis Draper recovered a fumble for the Tigers with 8:02 left in the fourth quarter but the Tigers were unable to capitalize.

Helping carry the ball was Qyendairs Griffin, Haven McGee, William Hentz, Micah Sanford, Charles Gray, Rashad Burdette, Keunte Turner and Matthew Brown.

On the defensive side of the ball for the younger players were Temario Strong, Nico Agate, Jason Milam and Dennis Draper.

The Tigers finished the game with 20 first downs and held the Eagles to four. The Tigers had 348 rushing yards and 112 passing yards. The Eagles had eight rushing and 109 passing yards for a total of 117 yards for the night.

Six penalties cost the Tigers 70 yards and the Eagles had four for 20.

Parker led the team with rushing yards followed by Dominique Carothers with 13 carries for 50 yards, Qyendairs Griffin had six carries for 36 yards and Renfroe had three carries for 26 yards.

Renfroe finished the game with 112 yards passing on six completions with one touchdown. Nicklos Brassell had four receptions for 99 yards and one touchdown. Anthony Ladd had one reception for nine yards and Reuben Corley had one reception for 4 yards.

Nicklos Brassell had 1 punt return for nine yards, William Hentz had one kickoff return for 53 yards and LaReco Lee had 1 interception return for 28 yards.

Pogue said his team had a good night. “We had to come back and try to get ourselves grounded from last week and that was my major concern, our mental approach, and I thought we did a good job. I knew we wouldn’t be emotionally up like last week but I just wanted to come out and play ball on both sides and not have any mistakes.“

Pogue told the team after the game that they knew what they were facing next week.

“Make smart decisions about the things you do,” Pogue said. “Use good judgments because we need everybody. We need all of us together. We’re going on the road and it’s going to be a big game and a big crowd. We need to have a good week and get ready to play. Seniors, we need good leadership. If we take care of our part, the rest of it doesn’t matter.”

JePeri Mitchell talked about what they did to stop the Eagles. “Basically what we did was we came out and played hard. The coaches already had a game plan that we practiced all week. It feels good to get that first district win.”

Dominque Carothers said it had been a hard week of practice.

“We knew that they weren’t the best team that we’ve played in the past but we had to stay focused and not underestimate them,” he said. “We came out here and played our game and the defense did what they do all season and kept them less than 14 points.”

Nicklos Brassell said this week will be tough competition but they are just going to step it up a little bit and make sure that they take it all the way.

Nicholas Parker said, “The defense did their job tonight to stop the Eagles. As far as playing Olive Branch next week, we’re South Panola and we’re going to win.”

The Tigers will be in Olive Branch for a 7 p.m. Showdown.

The district office will have 2,500 tickets to sell this week for $6. They will be available Wednesday and Thursday at the Central Office from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Friday at the Central Office from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The gates at Olive Branch will be open at 4:30 p.m.

South Panola High School Homecoming is scheduled for October 10 with the Columbus Falcons.  The game begins at 7p.m. Homecoming festivities will be held at halftime.