By Angie Ledbetter

After leading the Southaven Chargers 21-0 at the end of the first quarter on homecoming night, Southaven rallied for 21 unanswered points to tie the game with 5:03 left in the second quarter.

Tiger head coach Lance Pogue said, “We had a turnover and they got the ball on the 30 scoring on a fourth down. Then we didn’t handle our kickoff one time and they got the ball at about the 35. So they had two short ones on that.”

It was a dog fight until the very end but the Tigers (7-2 overall, 4-0 district) held on with all they had to come out with a slim 35-33 margin over the Chargers (6-3, 3-2) to remain undefeated in the division.

“I will never apologize for winning. I know we can play better and we’ve got to find a way to get better.”
Junior quarterback Rip Kirk connected with junior wide receiver Bailey Lawrence on an 18-yard touchdown pass to start the game. A few minutes later sophomore athlete Darrell Henderson took the ball from the one for another Tiger score. Senior wide receiver DeAndrea Harris scored on a 40-yard pass from Kirk for the last touchdown in the first quarter. Senior kicker Clayton Sibley’s three PATs gave the Tigers the 21-0 lead.

The Chargers tied the game and then with 1:10 left in the first half Kirk found C. J. Leland on a 14-yard touchdown pass and Sibley added the PAT, giving the Tigers a 28-21 lead at the half.

The Tiger defense held the Chargers to a field goal twice. Vincent Hamsch kicked 31 and 24-yard field goals in the third to cut the Tiger lead to one, 28-27, at the end of the quarter.

With 7:55 left in the game Henderson rushed from the four yard line to the endzone and Sibley’s PAT gave the Tigers a 35-27 lead.

But the Charges came charging back. With 4:41 left in the game Ball scored on a 23-yard pass from Shea Chism. The Chargers went for two to tie the game but failed when Ephraim Kitchens broke up the pass.
Tavian Bibbs carried the ball 20 times for 99 yards and Henderson also carried it 20 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

Kirk completed 10 of 18 passes with three touchdowns. Harris had four receptions for 75 yards with one touchdown. Lawrence had two for 35 yards with one touchdown and Leland had one for 14 yards with one touchdown.

Southaven got a lot of credit from Pogue.

“I knew coming in they were dangerous offensively. They’ve got a great group of receivers and a really sharp quarterback that made plays all night.”

Southaven’s quarterback Chism put on a show throwing the ball 67 times.

“That’s unheard of in high school football and I’ve never seen it happen. Forty is one thing but not 67 times. They didn’t even try to run it because they had a nice plan and were going to throw it no matter what and this turf is good for that too. If it was November and a muddy field, it might not have been this way but this played in their hands.”

The Tigers dominated the time of possession with 31:40 minutes over the Charger’s 16:20. It was a slim margin on total offense with the Tigers having 398 total yards over the Charger’s 391. The Chargers had 26 first downs to the Tiger’s 24. Each team fumbled twice and lost only one. The Tigers had nine penalties for 88 yards while the Chargers had five for 25 yards.

Dashawn Lindsay led the Tigers with seven tackles, one interception, nine pass breakups and one fumble recovery. DeAndrea Harris followed with five tackles and Brady Smith had an interception also.

“I thought the defense played hard,” added Pogue. “You have to give their guys some credit also. They were throwing the ball up and Hunter Ball was making some jump balls. He’s an all star player.”

The biggest play was Kitchens stop of the two-point conversion with 4:40 left in the game.

“They made a lot of plays and we made some when we had to get them stopped,” Pogue said. “We caused a few turnovers and there was no bigger play than the last one when Kitchens knocked the ball away on the two point conversion. The offense ran the clock out with over four minutes to go.”

South Panola will be on the road for its final two games of the regular season. Friday, the Tigers will play at Grenada who lost to Olive Branch 21-0 Friday night. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

In other district action, Desoto Central got its second district win knocking off Tupelo 39-34.
Horn Lake lost to Columbus 14-0 dropping to 0-5 in the district.