Tigers travel for Friday night action against Tupelo

By Brad Greer
The South Panola Tigers will put their 35-game district winning streak on the line tonight as they travel to #2 ranked and undefeated Tupelo for a 7 p.m kickoff.
South Panola, (4-4; 3-0) and winners of three straight games, have not lost a district game since a 24-6 loss to Olive Branch in 2011.
Tupelo meanwhile enters tonight’s contest with a 3-0 district record and 7-0 overall. The Golden Wave is coming off a 38-7 win over Southaven last week. Tupelo’s closest game so far this season has been 14-13 home victory over Brandon in week three.
South Panola head coach Lance Pogue is expecting a battle against a Tupelo defense that is surrendering 12 points per contest.
“We are looking for a tough, physical game from them. They have a lot of fast, skilled guys on both sides of the ball. In some ways they remind me of the 2013 defensive unit that was very good. They had a tough year last season, but are returning some key players plus they added a transfer defensive linemen from Texas that has played a key role,” said Pogue.
Tupelo is led on offense by sophomore quarterback Stephon Mcglaun (6’3”-245) who has accounted for 12 touchdowns on the year which includes 585 yards passing and 288 yards rushing with six touchdowns.
Sophomore running back Jaquerrious Williams (5’9”-190) leads the Golden Wave in rushing with 631 yards on 88 carries and six touchdowns. Senior LaBryant Siddell (5’8-211) follows with 44 carries for 367 yards and four scores. Donte Freeman (5’9”-170) is Tupelo’s main receiving target with 24 catches for 306 yards and three touchdowns.
The Golden Wave defense features a pair of senior linebackes Jett Johnson and Diesel Howell along with senior defensive lineman McKenzie Richardson (5’11”-242) who leads the team with 10 tackles-for-loss.
South Panola meanwhile is hoping for a repeat performance of last week’s 35-26 victory of Hernando in which the Tiger offense rolled up 265 yards rushing.
JaMichael Robinson and Jamian Johnson combined for over 200 rushing and three scores while Markel Gleaton added a touchdown.
James Johnson anchors a South Panola defense along with D. J. Hall and Robert Hentz who both accounted for five tackles last week.
Pogue said the key to coming away with a victory tonight will be ball control and avoiding giving up big plays on defense.
“Their offense has been living off big plays all year whether it being a long pass or a long gain on the ground. So hopefully we can minimize that. They are going to get their yardage, but we have to prevent that big ‘home run’ play. Then on offense we have got to find a way to stay on the field and move the ball and then we also can not turn the ball over. But we plan on giving them our best effort and throw everything we got at them and see what happens at the end of the night,” said Pogue.
Other games on the district slate include: Desoto Central (6-2; 1-2) visits Hernando (5-2; 1-2), Columbus (3-4; 1-2) hosts Southaven (5-3; 1-2) and Horn Lake (7-1; 2-1) travels to Olive Branch (0-7; 0-3).