By Angie Ledbetter

Round one of the MHSAA 6A playoffs was not much of a problem for the No. 1 nationally ranked South Panola Tigers as they handed the Grenada Chargers a 56-0 shutout Friday night in the playoff opener advancing to round two and winning their 24th victory in a row.  

The Tigers entered the contest as the No. 1 seed in region one and the Chargers were no. 4 in region two.

In quarter finals this Friday, the Tigers will travel to Olive Branch for a rematch from October 1 after the Conquistadors defeated Clinton 35-14 earning a home field advantage. Madison Central defeated Tupelo 48-10 and Northwest Rankin defeated Southaven 36-33.  

The Chargers received the opening kickoff but went up against the brick wall of the Tiger’s nasty bunch defense and had to punt with 10:51 on the clock. A few seconds later on the return, Tony Conner fumbled the ball but Kendrick Market set the tone early for the dominating Tigers after he recovered the fumble and returned it 35-yards for the first of many Tiger’s touchdowns. The extra point attempt was good by Clayton Sibley to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.   

Market struck when the clock ticked 5:34 after he returned a 75 yard interception and Sibley’s PAT was good putting the Tigers up by 14. That series took 12 plays, 71 yards and 4:58 minutes.

A few seconds later, Issac Gross recovered a Charger’s fumble to set up a six yard touchdown run by Qyen Griffin with 3:15 on the clock and Sibley capped it off with his PAT. It took four plays, 24 yards and 1:32 minutes.

The Tigers struck again before the quarter ended when Nick Brassell connected with Lee Self on a 32 yard pass and Sibley’s PAT was good putting the Tigers up 28-0. It took five plays, 53 yards and 2:00 minutes.

With the clock reading 5:35 Self connected with Donnell Chapman for four yards and Sibley struck with another PAT. That series took 5:55 off the clock on 11 plays with 82 yards.

Griffin struck again at the 1:28 mark after he took the ball from eight yards out. Sibley sent his PAT across the goal post to give the Tigers a 42-0 lead over the Chargers at the half.  It took 2:07 off the clock with five plays with 58 yards.

Charger’s Tony Drinkwater kicked off to Conner to start the second half who immediately returned it 86 yards for another Tiger score. Sibley capped it off with his PAT with 11:49 on the clock.

A little over five minutes later, Conner took the ball from the Tiger’s 40 yard line for the Tiger’s last score of the night. Sibley kicked his eight PAT to give the Tiger’s the victory and his perfect night on PATs. It took 72 yards with three plays to run 1:57 off the clock.

Conner ended the game with 110 yards on four carries with one touchdown. Griffin had 12 for 70 yards with two touchdowns. Market had two for 61 yards with one touchdown. Brassell had two receptions for 41 yards and one touchdown while Marcus Henry had three for 34 yards.

Al Hentz led the defense with six tackles and three pass deflections. Issac Gross followed with five and Taylor Rotenberry with four. Recovering fumbles was Market, Gross and James Gray.

With this game, Griffin has 2,049 yards on 204 carries with 30 touchdowns. Brassell has 44 receptions for 739 yards with 12 touchdowns. Self has completed 80 of 120 passes for a 66 percent completion rate, 1,297 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Gross and Conner lead the nasty bunch defense with 53 tackles each.

Head Coach Lance Pogue told the team after the game, “Keep your mind focused on what we’re doing. It’s 16 and now down to 12 so let’s keep it going.”

“It’s a good win for us,” said Pogue. “I’m proud of all of our guys. We played good ball tonight. We scored on defense early and it didn’t look like for awhile that our offense was going to get the ball. We played all of our guys in the second half of the game. Now we have another week in front of us.

“Our kicking game has been really good all year,” said Pogue. “We’re getting mileage out of our kick off return and our punt return is good. I’m not sure if we even punted tonight but that’s been solid for us also. We work on the kicking game every day because it makes such a difference for field position plus we have some guys that have some weapons on the kicking team.”

“Grenada is a good team and young with a good looking quarterback who is a sophomore. They’re a good team which is on the rise.”