By Angie Ledbetter

The No. 1 ranked South Tigers (8-0, 4-0) football team was rocking all night long as they trampled the Tupelo Golden Wave (5-2, 2-2) 62-6 on regional television Friday night.

An estimated 8,500 fans were at Tupelo High School stadium with fans lining up at 4 o’clock to get in the game to witness the Y’all vs. Us broadcast which included a jumbotron and fireworks.

The Tigers set the tone early after winning the toss and deferring. The Golden Wave took the opening kickoff and returned it to their 36 before the so called “nasty bunch” Tiger defense held the Golden Wave on their own 46 and forced them to punt.

The Tigers took the ball on their 30 and after passes to senior wide receivers Donnell Chapman and recent Mississippi State commit Nick Brassell from Lee Self. Qyen Griffin ran the ball three times to move it to the Golden Wave’s 37. The next play Self picked up five yards on a keeper. Fireworks went off after the next pass from Self to Brassell from 32 yards out for the first touchdown with 5:58 left in the first quarter. The touchdown capped a six-play, 70-yard drive in 3:04 minutes.

Golden Wave quarterback Luke Hobson was sacked by Issac Gross and Temario Strong on back-to-back downs to force a punt.

The first quarter ended with the Tigers in the lead 7-0.

On third down and four from Golden Wave’s 20, Griffin scored his first of five touchdowns on the night. The Tiger lead stood at 13-0 after the PAT failed with 11:26 on the clock. That drive was 12 plays, 84 yards in 4:21 minutes.

Griffin pushed forward for a three-yard touchdown run with 5:37 left in the second quarter. The two point conversion pass from Self to Taylor Rotenberry gave the Tigers a 21-0 lead. The drive covered nine plays in 62 yards and 3:24 minutes.

The Golden Wave avoided a shut out when Terrell Pinson caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from Hobson with 4:16 on the clock. Hunter Raines’ PAT was blocked by Dennis Draper and Lakedrick Flowers.

The Tigers answered a few minutes later with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Self to senior receiver Marcus Henry. Again the PAT failed as the Tigers took a 27-6 lead at the half. The touchdown drive covered 80 yards in six plays.

Senior athlete and recent Mississippi State commit Kendrick Market scored on a 56-yard run at the 6:38 mark in the third quarter. Griffin converted the two-point conversion attempt. The drive covered  76 yards in five plays for the 35-6 lead.

A few seconds later, Gregdrecus Leland intercepted Hobson’s pass on the Golden Wave’s 48. That set up an 11-yard touchdown run by Griffin at the 4:47 mark. Clayton Sibley’s PAT was good to push the Tigers lead to 42-6.

With 2:07 left in the quarter, the Golden Wave punted to the Tiger’s 45. In one down, Griffin broke for a 55-yard run. Sibley’s PAT was good to give the Tigers a 49-6 lead at the end of the third.

The Tigers started the fourth on their own 48 after the Golden Wave punted. One play later, Griffin scored on a 52-yard run for his fifth touchdown. With Sibley’s PAT the Tigers led 56-6 with 11:46 left in the game.

The Tigers took one more snip at the Golden Wave with 3:11 left in the game when junior running back Marcus Dixon scored the last touchdown of the game on a two-yard run.

The score stood 62-6 after Sawyer Oakes’ PAT failed.

Griffin’s goal going into the game was to get 300 yards.

“I’d been talking about it all week,” said Griffin. “I finally did it and I’m happy. I have to give credit to my offensive line also. I didn’t think I’d do it at this game but I kept faith in myself and my line. The defense got me the ball to do it so I give all the credit to my team. I just hope we keep on working and keep on pushing.”

Tiger head coach Lance Pogue commented on Griffin.

“He’s a big physical guy but has great speed. He had a couple of long ones tonight. Griffin is a great football player and doing a heck of a job for us this year,” Pogue said.

Senior linebacker Dennis Draper said, “I didn’t think this game would be this high of a score but they had been talking about how bad they were going to beat us. I knew we could do anything and we showed them. It feels great to win this big over here.”

Draper said some adjustments were made at the half.

“We went in at the half and talked about what they were doing. Our defensive coach told us to move over and we changed some stuff.”

The defensive line came up big for the Tigers according to Pogue.

“We did a good job early in the game and Tupelo got a couple of passes on us late in the first half and scored,” he said. “We were a little bit relaxed early on but not taking anything away from Tupelo. We challenged our defense to play a little harder in the second half and get our intensity level up. We played a great game offensively other than a couple of series early in the third quarter but the second half we played defense the way I want played from an intensity stand point. We really took it to them.

“The defense is physical and we’ve got a great front that gets some pressure on guys,” Pogue continued. “The secondary did a great job in the second half also. Our linebackers did a good job and I was really pleased what we did the second half defensively.”

Another big thing that has gone the Tiger’s way is no injuries.

“Knock on wood, the good Lord has been good to us from a health stand point and that’s critical this time of the year,” said Pogue.

The Tiger’s time of possession was 26:10 with 26 first downs, one fumble lost and four penalties for 36 yards. .

The Tiger defense allowed 119 total yards, seven first downs and had four sacks.

Leading in tackles was Temario Strong with seven tackles, and three sacks for a loss of 28 yards.  

Draper had six tackles followed by Tony Conner and Flowers with four each. Gross had one sack.

The offense put up 609 total yards and 305 of that came by way of Griffin. Griffin led the team with 28 carries and five touchdowns. His longest run was 55 yards.

Market had four carries for 89 yards with one touchdown. Dixon had six carries for 28 yards with one touchdown.

Self was seven of 11 passing for 141 yards with one touchdown.

On receiving, Brassell had four receptions for 109 yards and one touchdown. Henry had one reception for 12 yards and one touchdown.

Self was named South Panola student athlete of the game by Cellular South with a 3.5 grade point average.

“I thought it was a great game,” said Self. “The Y’all vs. Us is really good and I hope they continue it. I thought we played a really good game here tonight and I’m really proud of my whole team.

“We were shooting to put up 60 plus points on Tupelo because there was a lot of trash talk going on earlier in the week about stuff,” Self continued. “I thought our offense was really balanced tonight and I feel like I threw the ball better this week than last week. Qyen really showed out tonight and I’m really happy for him. Our line blocked great also.”

The Tigers return home for the final home game of the regular season Friday night.

They will host the Southaven Chargers who have become a major competitor in 1-6A. Southaven slipped by Starkville Friday night 28-27.

Southaven is sitting in second place in the district with a 3-1 district record.

In honor of Red Ribbon Week,  a week set aside to remind students of the problems alcohol, South Panola fans are asked to wear something red in the stands.

South Panola High School will be selling tickets for the game Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the high school. Ticket booth opens at 6 p.m. Kickoff is 7 p.m.