There were a lot of factors at play as South Panola defeated the district foe Starkville Yellowjackets 25-10 Friday night to clinch the 1-5A District Championship.

This is the fifth straight year the Tigers have won the championship. The win over Starkville also marked the 55th straight win for the Tigers.

The wind was high which caused trouble on the kicks. The field was muddy from a day and a half of rain which had stopped a few hours before the game. It did drizzle during the game and the temperature steadily dropped throughout the night.

The Tiger crowd filled the visitor side but Starkville fans were sadly lacking.

Some of the Tigers’ four turnovers could be laid at the foot of the wet field and the windy weather.

The Tigers lost two balls to interceptions and two to fumbles. One interception was returned 67 yards for a touchdown to give Starkville the 7-6 lead after the PAT with 2:07 left in the first quarter.

South Panola got on the scoreboard first on their first possession of the game. Senior tailback Jeramie Griffin scored on a 46-yard run with 10:46 left in the first quarter.

Griffin, who had 253 rushing yards on the night, capped a three-play, 73-yard drive. The PAT by David Renfroe was blocked.

Griffin further dazzled the crowd throughout the night as he was noted to drag a few defenders with him when he handled the ball in close yardage situations.

In the first quarter, Starkville had its own trouble holding onto the ball. With 8:36 on the clock, Starkville fumbled and the Tigers recovered it on their own 33. That possession ended in a punt.

After the interception returned for a touchdown, it only took the Tigers and Griffin two minutes and 17 seconds to retake the lead for good. On the first play of the second quarter, Griffin scored on a 50-yard run. The two-point conversion failed as the Tigers led 12-7.

On the following Starkville possession, Tiger defensive back Bud Barksdale intercepted the pass with 10:05 left in the half and returned it to the 50 yard line.

With 7:25 left in the first half, senior Tiger quarterback Leroy Diggs threw his second interception of the game. Starkville had to punt that possession away due to the Tiger defense standing strong.

On the very next possession of the Tigers, the Tigers fumbled and the Yellowjackets recovered it with 3:52 left in the half on their own 30.

The Yellowjackets kept the ball for a while and the Tiger defense racked up some stats.

Sophomore linebacker Marvin Burdette recorded a tackle for lost yards.

The Yellowjackets moved the ball with their passing game to the Tiger 10 yard line. On second down and nine, senior linebacker Rodney Diggs hurried the quarterback and the pass went incomplete. On third down and nine, Tiger defensive end Terrance Pope blocked the pass.

Starkville attempted a 28-yard field goal which was blocked by senior linebacker Kevin Young, his third block of the season, to end the half with a 12-7 Tiger lead.

The Tiger defense was relentless in the second half. Starkville received the opening possession and senior linebacker Chris Strong registered a sack on third down.

After the punt on first down, Diggs connected with Griffin on a 29-yard pass to get in Yellowjacket territory on the 39-yard line.

In seven more plays, the Tigers scored on a one-yard run by Diggs for an 18-7 lead. The PAT failed.

Starkville started its next possession on its own 36 and pushed the ball the Tiger eight yard line.

South Panola forced Starkville to try for a 25-yard field goal but a Tiger penalty moved them half the distance to the goal to the four yard line. Starkville kicked a 20-yard field goal with 3:19 left in the third quarter to cut the Tiger lead to 18-10.

The final score of the game was a 16-yard run by Diggs with 3:54 left in the game. Renfroe nailed the PAT for the 25-10 win.

Diggs was the second leading rusher with 131 yards on 19 carries. Griffin’s 253 yards came on 30 carries. Both had two touchdowns each.

Diggs completed three of eight passes for 66 yards. Griffin caught one pass for 29 yards. Montez Austin had 23 yards on one pass and Roderick Jefferson had 14 yards on one pass.

The Tigers had a total offense of 451 yards which included 385 rushing yards.

Starkville was held to a total of 195 yards including 158 passing and 37 rushing.

The Tigers will play their final regular season game on the road to Grenada Friday night. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.

In other action around the district Grenada was upset by Southaven 10-6. Olive Branch shut out Columbus 28-0. Tupelo got by Horn Lake 18-13.

Around the state, it was a nailbiter in Oxford as Lafayette County defeated the then No. 6 ranked Oxford Chargers in overtime 29-28. Oxford scored in overtime and kicked the PAT. Lafayette scored, went for the two-point conversion and won the game.

Oxford dropped out of the Clarion-Ledger polls after two straight losses.

In 2-5A action, Northwest Rankin knocked off the then No. 9 Madison Central Jaguars 23-20. Madison Central dropped out of the polls and Northwest Rankin is No. 10.

Schools in classes 2A, 3A and 4A will start playoffs Friday night. Schools in 1A and 5A have one more regular season game Friday and the first round of playoffs will begin November 10.

In private school action, Magnolia Heights of Senatobia remains undefeated 9-0 after a 21-14 win over Lee Academy.

The 250 Sam’s Town Busch Race took place at Memphis Motorsports on Saturday, October 28. It was race No. 32 of 35 races for the season.

Kevin Harvick, race car No. 21, who is sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard, won the race.

A late caution created a green-white checkered restart. On the restart, Harvick drove under No. 60 Carl Edwards in turn one. Edwards had to move up the track and No. 2 Clint Bowyer was able to drive under Edwards for second place. Edwards was unable to regain the lead and finished third. Harvick continued to maintain the lead to win.

When the caution came out, the running order for the top five was No. 60 Carl Edwards, No. 21 Kevin Harvick, No. 2 Clint Bowyer, No. 00 Johnny Sauter and No. 88 Shane Huffman.

Another notable driver from the Nextel Cup that was racing on Saturday was No. 9 Kasey Kahne who finished in eighth place. Kane is in tenth place in the chase for the Nextel Cup.

The dismal weather was the setting as North Panola ended its dismal season 1-8 on a 42-7 loss to Senatobia Friday night.

Senatobia finished first in the district with an undefeated district record of 6-0 and overall 6-4. Senatobia will host South Pontotoc in the first round of playoffs Friday.

This was a game in which North Panola was not allowed to dominate any area as the Cougars have done this past season.

Senatobia led 21-0 at the half and 35-0 at the end of the third quarter. North Panola scored on an eight-yard pass in the fourth quarter to avoid a shutout. The PAT was good for the 42-7 Senatobia win.

The Cougars ended the season 1-8 overall, 1-5 district.

District action came to an end on Friday night for the North Delta Green Waves as they finished off district play defeating Marvell, Ark. 37-8 in Marvell where the weather was very cold and windy.

This game improved the Green Wave’s district record to 4-2 and with hope they will play in one of the two wildcard places starting in two weeks with the playoffs. If the Green Wave clinch a wildcard place, they will be playing for the South half of the state since there are no district six football teams in the south half.

The Green Wave traveled about two hours to Marvell and got the job taken care of in the first half. The starters got a well-deserved break and the backup players got some game experience.

"I felt good," said head coach Richard Russo. "Anytime that you can get ninth and 10th graders in the game at the start of the third quarter, then obliviously some great things have happened in the first half. I was tickled the way our kids overcame some things in the first quarter. "

The Green Waves were down 8-7 at one point in the first quarter of the game and responded quickly.
"They responded in what I like to call a swarm mode," Russo said. "We are like a swarm of bees and we got all over them and it was great."

Russo also talked about how the Green Waves were able to rush the ball without senior fullback Dakota Mabry.

"Evan West, Nick Douglas, and J.T. Dalrymple did a good job along with our offensive line and tightends," he said. "The receivers did a great job blocking."

There were some differences noted between last week’s game against Bayou and Friday’s game against Marvell.

"In pregame, I looked all 28 players in the eyes and I said if you really want to make the playoffs, it is going to show up in your plays starting with the first buzzer and they did a good job responding," Russo said.

Russo was complimentary of the backup players in the second half.

"Bateman Greenlee did a good job as a backup linebacker," he said. "Seth Barnett did an outstanding job as backup corner, both in pass coverage and run support. We let our freshman running back, Geri Lamm, come in off of his junior varsity season. He ended up with 25 yards on eight carries which is over three yards a carry which is a great job as far a his first varsity action."

Scoring for the Green Wave were Douglas who had three touchdowns which included runs of 37, 68 and 30 yards. He ended up with 161 yards in the first half on 11 carries.

Evan West had 10 carries for 94 yards with two touchdowns. Dalrymple had five carries for 53 yards with one touchdown. He was six of nine passing for 70 yards.

"One of them was an outstanding catch by Josh Garrott," Russo said.

Other players who carried the ball were Blane Joyner with two carries, two yards; Britt Lawrence, one carry, two yards; Hunter West, one carry, two yards; and Thomas Womble, one carry, one yard.

"On the defense, we really didn’t have anything outstanding because we had the ball most of the night," said Russo.

Britt Lawrence, sophomore linebacker, led the team with five tackles. Barnette also had five tackles. Douglas, Garrott, Dalrymple, and Greenlee each had one interception. Dalrymple recovered two onside kick fumbles and Greenlee recovered a fumble.

Freshman linebacker Thomas Womble had three tackles. Dalrymple punted once for 26 yards and Brandon White punted once for 16 yards.

"With a 6-4 record at this point, it’s not where I want to be, but I am proud of the boys," Russo said. "They have had to overcome a coaching change. They had to overcome inexperience. They had to overcome their emotional leader going down in the fourth ballgame of the season. So they have overcome a lot this season to have a winning record and I am very very proud of them.

"My goal was to win the district but it didn’t turn out that way," he continued. "In life, things don’t always turn out the way you want it to, but that doesn’t mean that you quit living and that doesn’t mean that we have got to quit playing and preparing."

Russo said the team of today looks totally different than the team who played Marshall at the beginning of September.

"They have really picked up the offensive and defensive systems a lot better," Russo said. "They have really shrugged off the inexperience and are playing as a team. A lot of them have become football players and I couldn’t be more proud of them."

The Green Wave ended up with 350 rushing yards on 46 carries and 70 passing yards for a total offense of 420. They had 12 first downs and five penalties for 45 yards.

On the other side, Marvell had 16 carries for 21 yards rushing, and they were 14 of 24 for passing for 160 yards for a total offense of 181 yards. They had seven first downs and one penalty for one yard. They had four fumbles and lost all four and four interceptions.

The Green Waves will play their last regular season game at home this Friday night hosting Lee Academy from Clarksdale. The senior football players and cheerleaders will be honored at 7:10 p.m.

Nothing more than pride was on the line when the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers closed out the regular season with a 29-6 victory against the Mississippi Delta Trojans Oct. 26 at Bobby Franklin Field in Senatobia.

Northwest, which clinched the MACJC north division championship last week against Itawamba, took care of business against Mississippi Delta and finished with a perfect division record of 6-0 for the first time since 2003.

The Rangers, 6-3 overall, will host south division runner-up Pearl River in the first round of the MACJC state playoffs Saturday, Nov. 4 in Senatobia. Pearl River is ranked No. 3 in the nation and has won the last three state championships.

"It wasn’t a meaningless game to us because we wanted some momentum heading into the playoffs," said Northwest head coach Randy Pippin. "Our guys did a great job of coming out focused. It wasn’t our best game, but we gave a good effort under the circumstances."

The Rangers essentially put Mississippi Delta away in the first 13 minutes of the contest by scoring 17 points thanks to some great field position on their first three possessions of the game.

Northwest freshman Davell Jackson returned the opening kickoff 65 yards to the Trojan 26 yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Brandon Myles tossed an eight-yard touchdown pass to receiver Travis Sanford.

The Rangers capitalized on a blocked punt to set up their next possession inside the Mississippi Delta 10. Jackson notched his third touchdown of the season with a six-yard run.

Northwest built a 17-0 lead after the first quarter thanks to a 29-yard field goal by Billy Bishop. The score came after Ranger linebacker Gary Dancer intercepted a pass and returned it 43 yards to the Trojan 22.

Bishop’s 43-yard field goal gave Northwest a 20-0 advantage at halftime.

The Rangers added another touchdown in the third period when quarterback Robert Glover threw a 19-yard pass to receiver Jonathan Jackson.

Mississippi Delta’s only score came with 7:19 left in the game when quarterback Travis McGee scored on a one-yard run.

Perhaps the most exciting play of the night came when Northwest blocked the extra point. The ball was scooped up by linebacker Judd Godwin who lateraled to Latarus Sykes. Sykes then dashed 74 yards for a two-point touchdown.

The Rangers won the contest despite gaining a season-low 182 yards of total offense. Northwest, which entered the contest first in the state in rushing offense with 254.1 yards per game, managed just 88 rushing yards on a damp field.

Northwest’s defense rose to the occasion by limiting Mississippi Delta to 111 total yards and nine first downs. The Rangers also registered four quarterback sacks.