By Angie Ledbetter
A one-handed interception by Turner Rotenberry with 5:43 left in the game saved a touchdown and the game for the South Panola Tigers against Clinton Friday night.

The South Panola Tigers fans that attended the 6A north quarterfinal game got every penny’s worth of the Tigers 9-7 victory.

The victory set up a 6A North Half Championship game in Starkville against the No 14 nationally-ranked Yellowjackets and No. 21 nationally-ranked Tigers.  In the state, Starkville is No. 1 and South Panola No. 2.

The Tigers had the 9-7 lead but the Arrows were driving towards a touchdown. After a Clinton holding penalty, they were faced with a third and 17 on the Tigers 20. Sophomore quarterback Cam Akers threw his second interception of the night in the end zone and Rotenberry became the game’s hero. The Tigers took over possession on their own 20 and ran out the clock.
“T. J. Beverly is their main receiver and the coaches told me to get on top of him and cover him so I did,” Rotenberry said after the game. “I saw Akers looking straight at him and he never took his eyes off of Beverly. I trailed him a little bit and picked the ball off one handed. That gave my seniors another chance to play another game and it felt awesome.”

An old fashion 6A football game that went down to the wire is how Tiger head coach Lance Pogue described the game.

“Clinton went from 3-8 a year ago and 10-2 this year so they’re a good football team but I’m proud of our guys,” said Pogue. “It took heart and guts and it was a hard fought game. Both teams laid it on the line and we made one more play than they did.”

The defense was again the star of the show for the Tigers.

“We played defense tonight at a high level and held a high scoring team down with a great athlete to one touchdown. I knew going into the game we were a good defensive team. Clinton scored 40 points on Starkville just two weeks ago and we held them to seven.”

Drelan Porter had nine tackles to lead the defense. Kamdon Edwards had five tackles and three pass deflections. Anfernee Benson also had five tackles.

Others contributing to the defense include: John Ellis, four tackles, two pass deflections; Turner Rotenberry, three tackles, one interception; Derrick Sanford, three tackles, one pass deflection; Ryan Lee, three tackles; Quandarious Hamilton, two tackles, one pass deflection; O’Bryan Goodson and Desmond Lester, two tackles each; Ephraim Kitchen, one tackle, one interception, two pass deflections; and Donald Twilley, one tackle, one pass deflection.

Senior running back Darrell Henderson scored with 9:43 left in the first quarter on a 53-yard run up the middle for the 6-0 lead as the extra point kick failed.

Clinton answered later in the quarter on a 35-yard keeper by Akers. The extra point attempt by Payton Arnold gave Clinton a 7-6 lead.

The 7-6 score for Clinton held up until 45 seconds left in the first half when Steven Collins kicked a 27-yard field goal for the 9-7 Tigers lead which turned out to be the final score of the game.
“We struggled some offensively and didn’t have our best game but we did enough,” Pogue said. “Sometimes you have to win games like this because everything just doesn’t go perfect. You have to give them credit defensively because they had a lot to do with it.”

Henderson led the offense with 147 yards on 23 carries. Oluwain Hoskins followed with 64 yards on 18 carries. Cole Rotenberry had one carry for 18 yards.

“This was a hard fought game,” Henderson said. “We knew Clinton had a good football program and they were just like us. They work hard, play hard and we knew that we were going to have to come out and play.

“I never got nervous and thought we were going to lose this game,” he continued. “I knew our defense was one of the best in the state and we’ve got playmakers on both sides. I knew they would step up and make huge plays.”

Clinton had a solid defense, according to Henderson.

“This was the toughest defense that we have played this year,” said Henderson. “The quarterback was amazing and I knew he was going to play hard.”

Pogue said turnovers were very critical to the win.

“It was big,” he said. “We got an interception and had several more that we dropped but I thought our secondary played well. We got pressure on them. Clinton ran the ball a little bit on us but we didn’t get over concerned about that. We just didn’t want them to go crazy throwing the football all night. Containing them gave us a chance to win.”

Along with, Rotenberry, Ephraim Kitchen also intercepted an Akers pass.

Tyler Pogue completed two of nine passes for 10 yards. Reginald Morris had one reception for six yards and Twilley had one for four.

Tyler Pogue said he did not think the Tigers were going to lose.

“We just needed to come together and start making plays,” he said. “We weren’t making very many on the offense by throwing the ball very well or catching it when we needed to. We were breaking down and we can’t do that next week. We’ve got to come back on Monday, put in a heck of a week of practice and come out strong against Starkville.

Turner Rotenberry punted eight times for 268 yards which was an average of 33.5 with 48 being his longest of the night.

South Panola ended the game with 235 total yards while Clinton had 218 yards on 53 plays.
Akers was held to 98 yards on 18 carries with one touchdown. He completed two of 13 passes for 14 yards.

The Tiger Talk Radio Show on FM 100.5 with Pogue will air Thursday night at 6 p.m.
Kickoff in Starkville is 7 p.m.