The Batesville Jr. High School football eighth grade team is 3-0 after defeating Grenada 32-0 Thursday.
"We had an outstanding game from our offensive line," said head coach Robert Lightsey.

Offensive linemen include Tyrone Key, Austin Douglas, Qyendairus Griffin, Taylor Rotenberry, Marquise Hamilton, Quendell Miles and Stacy Draper.

On September 18, Batesville defeated Oakhurst of Clarksdale in a nailbiter 8-6.

"It was a defensive battle the whole game," Lightsey said.

Clarksdale scored in the first quarter and held the Tigers scoreless until five minutes remained in the game. Nick Brassell scored on a 20-yard run around the left end. The two-point conversion was good to give the Tigers the lead and the win.

In the first game of the season, Batesville defeated Higgins of Clarksdale 52-12. Brassell scored two touchdowns along with Dennis Draper. William Hentz scored a touchdown. Jeremiah Watson ran back a kickoff for a touchdown.

In seventh grade action, Batesville defeated Grenada 28-12 Thursday.

The next game for the seventh and eighth grades will be Monday, October 2 when they host Desoto Central beginning at 4:30 p.m.

No matter what North Panola tried, the team still fell short of a win Friday night.

North Panola lost to district rival Marks Palmer 16-14. The difference in a tie and the win was a first quarter safety by Marks.

A touchdown and two point conversion in the second quarter gave Marks a 10-0 halftime lead.

A positive part of the Cougar game seems to be the Perry Trammell/ Bruce Wilbourn connection.

Quarterback Trammell connected with Wilbourn for two touchdowns in the second half for the Cougars. Two Tyrus Macks PATs kept the Cougars in the game.

Palmer claimed the win with a two-yard run in the fourth quarter, but the PAT failed.

The Cougar defense did a good job containing the Dragon offense in the second half.

This week North Panola will be celebrating homecoming. The annual coronation will be held Wednesday night in the gymnasium beginning at 7 p.m. Mr. and Miss North Panola will be presented. Admission is $5.

Mr. and Miss Homecoming will be crowned during the ceremonies.

Thursday, there will be a Car and Truck Show beginning at 6 p.m. in the school parking lot. There is a $20 entrance fee for participants.

The annual homecoming parade will be held Friday afternoon beginning at 5 p.m. in downtown Sardis. There is a $25 admission for non-school related organizations to participate in the parade. The game will kick off at 7 p.m.

There will be a Homecoming Dance for North Panola students only following the game.

During the week, the students will be participating in spirit days at school.

Monday was Stunna day with hats and sunglasses. Today is Twin Day. Tomorrow is Professional Day. Thursday is ?70s Day. Friday is Cougar Spirit Day in which the students will wear red and white.

North Panola will be hosting Independence who defeated Byhalia 15-0 Friday night.

North Delta Lady Green Waves fastpitch softball team participated in the North A softball tournament last week.

North Delta lost its first game to Deer Creek Wednesday, 8-4. They dropped to the loser’s bracket and faced Winona Christian.

They needed to win in order to stay alive in the tournament.

The Lady Green Waves defeated Winona Christian 4-1 which gave them a spot to play Saturday.

North Delta had to face Benton and lost 6-3 which ended the season. The tournament was called due to rain and Bayou Academy was declared the winner.

The top four teams advanced to the State A tournament which included Bayou, Benton, Deer Creek and Greenville Christian, in order of standings.

This is not an Outdoor Column. On the other hand, it’ll make you want to go outdoors, away from electricity, telephones, and compooters!

After we had the fire, we had to rebuild, which involved mortgage financing. The local lender sold our loan to someone else who sold it again. With family here Opening Day weekend, the payment deadline slipped up on me and I feared a $35 late fee.

Betsy suggested making the payment on-line, despite the fact that I had shown her in the Bible that "Internet" is "Ten Satans" spelt backwards. Well, for 35 bucks, it was worth a try, so I logged onto the site as advised by the mortgage company bill.

I had to set up an account using 8 Simple Steps. I got all the way to Number 6, and it beeped: "The information you have provided is in error." I had name, address, birthday, loan number, and Social Security number all correct, but again the compooter rejected me, but it did give a phone number. I called and a compooter answered with a series of recorded steps, which I wasn’t interested in. It also stated every sentence in English, and then repeated in Spanish.

I punched "0" and finally got a person who spoke English in a heavily-accented Spanish voice. I couldn’t understand her and she assumed a bad connection, asked me to call again, and hung up. I called again. Same compooter answered. Finally I got a person, who also spoke Spanish well, but English poorly. Hung up. Tried again Saturday. Same Spanish person. Sunday after church I got a lady (I think) with a deep husky voice, but she spoke English, and finally talked me through to Step 7. "You should be fine from here, Dearie," she wished me well as she hung up. Turns out that all Company Friday and weekend phone calls are routed to Manila and Costa Rica. Really.

I wasn’t fine. It kicked me out for "Inaccurate Information" again.

Saturday was the due date, but it said that if the due date fell on a weekend, next Monday was the due date. Monday I called Customer Service, early. A Chris answered in Southern English! "Chris, where are you?" I asked, rejoicing.

He was in Florida, and very helpful. My Social Security number, though correct on the statement, was wrong on the website. Chris gave me the direct number for the Tech Support office that could fix the problem. Hooray! I invited him to a weekend party at Brownspur.

Scott answered my TS call, in Seattle, Washington. He acknowledged the problem nicely, and transferred me to the Mortgage Department. Sharon answered, in Noo Yawk City.

She said she was in Retail, but could transfer me to Mortgage, and pencil in the party. There were some clicks, then a voice said, "You have dialed a number that is not in service. Please check the number and try your call again."

Well, I had a Tech Support number, right? Scott answered again. He apologized, accepted my invitation for the party at Brownspur, and transferred me to Sharlene, again in Noo Yawk City. She asked me some questions, including my SS#: "That’s nowhere near what we show in the compooter!" she exclaimed. I explained that I knew that, and was trying to correct their mistake. She said she’d transfer me to Mortgages, and could come to the Brownspur party. Again, I got the "dialed the wrong number" message.

Called Tech Support again. Scott was on his break, Lori said, but she could handle it. Her supervisor was David, who would take care of me, and she’d drive down with Scott for the party. David was also in Noo Yawk City, but he’d come to the party.

He put me on hold (Seattle has the best hold music, by the way) then said he’d send me a new Form 9 to fill out and return. I asked to get the late fee waived, since this was their mistake. Dave said he’d transfer me to a lady who might could do that.

He transferred me to Beth, who spoke Southern English! She was in Arkansas, and she’d come for the party. They had put down my phone number as my SS#! She fixed that, waived the late fee, took my payment, then identified me as an author. Could I send her a signed copy of my new novel, THE BAREFOOT DODGERS?

You bet I did. A $25 book instead of a $35 late fee? And all those nice people from all over the world are coming to Brownspur for the party! Que habla Espanol?
 

You’ll have to excuse me if I’m typing too loud here but I swear my ears are still ringing from the Florida at Tennessee game week before last. I’ve been in some loud games and that one is right up in the top five anyway. We had a larger crowd in the 2000 version up there but that was an afternoon game and it’s just something about a night game that makes it seem louder. Just ask any LSU-type person about night games.

With the discussions about a national language and why our elected leaders can’t seem to decide something as simple as that, there are several different languages, if you will, in sports these days.
In football, there’s such phrases as "Cover Two" and "Mike Linebacker" or even "Oskee." "Cover Two" refers to defensive back alignment for pass coverage, the "Mike Linebacker" is the middle linebacker which is important to know for offensive blocking assignments and "Oskee" (I’m not real sure about the spelling) is what a defender will yell when he "picks" or intercepts a pass to let his teammates know what has happened and to start blocking for him going the other way.

I’m a huge baseball fan and there is a ton of special "talks" there too. I’ve got to pass along a new one I heard on XM radio the other day. In baseball when a player hits a home run, a single, a double and a triple in one game it’s called, "Hitting the Cycle." The new one for me is a "Chronological Cycle" and that’s where a player does the whole deal in order: a single, then a double, a triple and last a home run. I’ll try to pick up some good ones to pass along as we go this season. I decided to use a baseball term first since MLB is going into the playoffs and the Yankees clinched the American League East.

And while I’m on the subject – call me "old school" if you want but it’s really refreshing to see someone like Derek Jeter make a backhand grab of a hot shot toward the hole and turn in mid-air to make a perfect throw to Wilson at first for the out. What’s great is after the dust settles he just has that smirk on his face like "I’ve been there, done that and will do it again." You don’t see him slam his glove down and start dancing on second base. Sorry, I just had to get that one in. I feel better now and my hearing is even starting to come back.

See you next week.

South Panola has won 50 games straight and is inching ever so close to the state record of 51 following a 40-7 victory over Horn Lake Friday night.
That victory sets the stage for a match of undefeateds when South Panola heads to Olive Branch Friday night.

Olive Branch is 5-0, 1-0 after defeating Southaven 49-0 Friday.

South Panola assistant coach Trenell Edwards said Olive Branch is tough as ever.

He said the Tiger defensive backs will have to be at the top of their game to stop Olive Branch.

Early Monday the coaching staff was putting together its report on Olive Branch and the game tape from Friday night was playing for the Tigers to get a good look at their upcoming opponent.

Against Horn Lake, South Panola faced a tough, scrappy team. Where the backup players played early in the last two games, it was the end of the third quarter before Tiger head coach Ricky Woods turned the game over to the reserves.

South Panola led 14-0 at halftime. Horn Lake was not a walk in the park.

Horn Lake’s first possession passing moved them from their own 20 yard line to the Tiger 20. The Eagles were going for the first score of the evening when defensive back Tigg Barksdale foiled the drive with an interception with 9:53 on the clock.

Barksdale took the ball in the endzone and returned it to the two yard line where he slipped down. A 91-yard touchdown run by tailback Jeramie Griffin was negated on an illegal block penalty by the Tigers. The Tigers eventually turned that possession over on downs.

On the Tigers’ next possession, they scored in three plays on a 32-yard run by quarterback Leroy Diggs with 53 seconds left in the first quarter. After the Eagles’ punt from their own 12, South Panola got the ball on the Eagles’ 39 yard line.

A bad snap led to a try for a two-point conversion which failed.

With 6:44 left in the first half, Barksdale scored on a 22-yard run. The Eagles had punted and fumbled the ball on their own 23 yard line and the Tigers recovered.

Barksdale also scored the two-point conversion to give the Tigers the 14-0 lead.

South Panola received the kickoff and started on their own 15 yard line. On first down and 10 from the 15, it was Barksdale again on an 85-yard touchdown run. He took the handoff from Diggs, broke to his left and sprinted for the score with no defenders touching him with only nine seconds off the clock.

David Renfroe’s PAT was good for the 21-0 Tiger lead.

The Tigers were threatening to score with 8:51 left in the third quarter. Horn Lake intercepted a Diggs ball on the five yard line, but ended up punting away that possession.

With 5:12 left in the quarter, the Tigers fumbled and Horn Lake recovered on their own 15 yard line and were not able to convert a score due to the Tiger defensive pass coverage.

Horn Lake completed one pass and had two incomplete passes before the punt.

When the Tigers got the ball back with 4:16 in the third quarter, Griffin scored on a 47-yard run for the 28-0 score after Renfroe’s PAT.

The Tigers were threatening again, but Renfroe’s pass was intercepted in the endzone with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.

With a Tiger penalty, the Eagles got the ball at the 35 yard line.

With two more Tiger penalties pushing them forward, the Eagles scored on a one-yard touchdown run with 10:08 left in the game. The ball was actually touching the goal on second and goal when the Eagles’ quarterback just pushed forward for the score. With the PAT, the Tiger lead was cut to 28-7.

The Tiger reserves got in the game against the Eagles and scored on sophomore tailback David Conner’s 38-yard run with 8:01 left in the game. Renfroe’s PAT failed and the score stood 34-7.

The last score of the evening came on a Terrance Griffin 14-yard run. Griffin drug two defenders five yards or more before he was able to shake them loose. Another one jumped on his back and Griffin carried him into the endzone for the score.

The two-point conversion failed with 3:27 left in the game as the Tigers won 40-7.

After the game, head coach Woods said the team made several improvements this week.

"Tailback Tigg (Barksdale) ran the best he ever has for me," Woods said.

Then he spoke about the upcoming match with Olive Branch.

Olive Branch has outscored opponents 301-18 this season, averaging 60.20 points per game.

Woods made a big promise on the postgame show on WBLE radio.

"I guarantee they won’t score 60 points against us," Woods said.

The Tigers logged 630 total offensive yards with 606 rushing.

Leading rushers for the Tigers were Barksdale with 207 yards on 12 carries, two touchdowns and Griffin with 136 yards on seven carries, one touchdown.

Other rushers include Conner, 98 yards, four carries, one touchdown; Diggs, 71 yards, 12 carries, one touchdown; Xavier Lee, 40 yards, three carries; Terrance Griffin, 20 yards, three carries, one touchdown; Quinterrious Wright, 14 yards, one carry; Justin Market, 11 yards, one carry; Reuben Corley, eight yards, three carries; and Renfroe, one yard, one carry.

Horn Lake had 167 total offensive yards, including 142 passing yards and 25 rushing.

The Tiger defense was led in tackles by Marlon Wilks and Jarred Draper with seven total tackles each. Kevin Young and Deshun Sandrdige had five total tackles each. Sandridge, along with Marvin Burdette, each had a sack. David Conner and Rodney Diggs had four tackles each.

Logging three tackles each were Chris Strong, Burdette, Terrance Pope and Barksdale.

The kickoff in Olive Branch is 7 p.m.

Directions: Take I-55 North. Take Church Road East. Go to Highway 305 and take a left into Olive Branch. At the traffic light under the bypass, take a right and Olive Branch High School is on the left about half a mile down the road.

The game between the North Delta Green Waves and the Desoto Mavericks came down to a defensive match on Friday night, but the end was not in favor of the Green Waves.

They dropped to 1-1 in district play after losing 13-7 to the Desoto Mavericks.

The Green Wave ended the game with 220 rushing yards on 52 carries. Jim Tyler Dalrymple was one of six for 17 yards on passing to give the Green Waves a total offense of 237 yards. They had 15 first downs, four penalties for 40 yards, two fumbles and lost only one of them.

The leading rusher for the night was Dakota Mabry who had 17 carries for 98 yards. He had North Delta’s only touchdown of the night.

Other rushers include Evan West, 54 yards, 13 carries; Jim Tyler Dalrymple, 34 yards, 12 carries; and Nick Douglas, 34 yards, 10 carries, and one reception for 17 yards.

On the Green Wave defense, Mabry logged 13 tackles and forced one fumble. Other tacklers include Josh Garrott, 13; Dalrymple, eight tackles, two interceptions, and two pass breakups; Evan West, six tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble; Britt Lawrence and Jim Beard, four tackles each; Josh Ratliff and Blane Joyner, three tackles each; and Nick Douglas, two tackles.

The only score in the first quarter came with 43 seconds left on the clock when Mabry took the ball in from the five. The PAT by Dalrymple was good for the Green Wave 7-0 lead.

Two plays later, Dalrymple intercepted the Mavericks’ ball on their 40 yard line and ran it back eight yards.

To start the second quarter, the Green Waves had the ball on Desoto’s 32 yard line. Not able to capitalize on the interception, the Waves had to punt.

With 4:28 left in the second quarter, the Mavericks got on the scoreboard on a 12-yard run. With the PAT, the game was tied at seven going at halftime.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Green Wave kicked to the Mavericks with the ball hitting on the side and it shooting to the left, going only 15 yards. The Mavericks recovered with great field position on their own 43.

The Mavericks’ running back Brett Gregory carried the ball to the Green Waves’ 12 and on the ensuing play, scored to take the lead.

The PAT failed and the Mavericks held a tenuous 13-7 lead with 11:30 on the clock.

Green Wave head coach Richard Russo said, "That goes back to the fact that you better play every play in a football game because you never know which one play might turn the game one way or another."
On the next drive, the Green Waves were driving down the field, getting to the Maverick’s five yard line, where they fumbled with the Mavericks recovering with 8:01 left in the third quarter. The Mavericks were not able to capitalize on the fumble due to the strong Green Wave defense.

"It was a mishandled snap," Russo said. "Our center was snapping the ball and he dropped it in mid-snap."

The fourth quarter ended with no scoring when the defense proved strong.

Dalrymple intercepted the Mavericks’ ball, but the Green Wave had to punt away the possession.

"Our defense played outstanding," Russo said. "They played well enough to win. Our offense moved the ball down well enough to win, but we just didn’t win the game. We moved the ball up and down the field. We were heck in between the 20s. We just didn’t get in the endzone but for one time. We missed a trick play that we had designed. We were just a yard and a half from completing it or our quarterback would have walked in the endzone on that quarterback throw back pass."

Russo said he told the team afterwards that he was proud of them and that for the first time they played four quarters.

"They played extremely hard," Russo said. "I couldn’t be more tickled. They gave all out effort for four quarters. The game came down to three plays in my opinion and they made their one play and we didn’t make our two.

"What we did was shoot ourselves in the foot," Russo continued. "We had one missed snap all year and it happened at the worst possible time when we were on the five yard line about to score."

Russo said the team was getting better every week. He did say he did not think they have played their best ball yet.

"Our best is yet to come," he said. "My desire is to get better each week. We had to break in two new outside linebackers this week, and I thought that they played exceptionally well. We had to make some adjustments after losing Jon Michael Ware last week, and I thought that the people that replaced him did an outstanding job for one week’s practice time."

Russo said he understood when the players were a little down after the game. He said some of the inexperienced players became football players Friday night.

The good thing, according to Russo, was even though this was a district loss, the Green Waves are not out of the running yet.
"We can still win the district, believe it or not," Russo said. "We can still make the playoffs. We still have some lofty goals that we can still achieve. We just have to stay the course. They played hard against a very good football team."

As for Mabry scoring the only touchdown of the night, Russo said Mabry did all he could do.

"He (Mabry) said hop on my back and I am going to take you down the field," Russo said. "He got out there and did his job. He has done his job every week. He ended up with 13 tackles this week. He had 11 at Kirk, and 13 against West Memphis. He is being consistent.

"If we could get all 11 players on offense, defense, and special teams, playing as consistent as Dakota, then we would be in great shape," Russo added.

Russo has wanted to keep quarterback Dalrymple off defense.

"We’re at a point now, we have no choice," said Russo. "I think that hurt us a little bit the other night. There were times when a fresh Jim Tyler, I think, might have broken a few of those long runs. He’s doing a good job. Plus, he had four punts, one of them was 50 yards, 38 yards, 40 yards, and 25 yards. That’s averaging 38.2 yards per punt."

The Desoto Mavericks had 255 yards of total offense, all rushing. They had 15 first downs, seven penalties for 65 yards and two interceptions.

Captains for the game were seniors Josh Ratliff, Britton Crawford, and Austin Atkinson.

The Green Wave are celebrating Homecoming 2006 this week.

"We have a lot of homecoming activities this week, but we have to stay focused on the game," said Russo. "That’s why we have homecoming because of the football game. We are going to treat this week the same."

The Green Wave will host the Tunica Blue Devils on Friday night, which is another district match up. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. on Green Wave field.

Activities planned for the week with the theme "Wonderful World of Waves" include today students dressed as Disney characters. Wednesday is dress up day for seniors and school pictures for everyone else. Thursday students will wear their homecoming t-shirts and the school will tailgate beginning at noon. Friday is dress up day. Homecoming presentation and the pep rally will be at 11 a.m. School will dismiss after the pep rally. Each class may choose to construct a sign reflecting the theme.

Homecoming queen will be crowned at halftime.

The challenge is open to all boys and girls ages
10-14.

Plaques will be awarded to top three winners in ages 10-11 and 12-14.

The first place winner in each age group will qualify for the district challenge to be held in October date and location tentative. Proof of age may be requested.