“It’s history,” West Marion senior Jartavious Martin said following the West Marion Trojans’ 38-6 home win over defending state champ Jeff Davis County Friday night. “We’ve never scored against JDC on this field; we never won against JDC on this field. For us to come out and execute on the district level and showing everybody that we can play on a high level and we’re not doing it against pushover teams, it’s a great confidence booster.”
The Trojans (4-1) were knocked out of the playoffs last year by Jeff Davis on their home field, but they avenged that loss with a statement victory on senior night Friday.
“It’s big,” senior quarterback Jayden Duncan said. “That’s probably the biggest game I’ve ever played right there. There’s no better feeling.”
“It was a big win, mainly because we’re 1-0 in the district; that’s the big part,” head coach Brad Duncan said. “I thought we played OK, but I still saw some mistakes we can fix. They were without a couple of key players, but our guys played hard.”
While the final score was pretty, the start of the game was anything but for the Trojans. After West Marion went three-and-out on the opening possession, Jeff Davis caught the Trojans secondary napping on its second play from scrimmage with a 61-yard halfback pass to get inside the West Marion 10. Two plays later the Jaguars were in the end zone to go up 6-0 less than four minutes into the game.
Then Trojans quarterback Jayden Duncan was picked to give Jeff Davis great field position, but a never-before-seen sequence flipped the momentum. Jeff Davis committed six false start penalties on the ensuing drive that brought the action to a screeching halt.
Early in the second quarter, a 32-yard catch-and-run by Octavious Harvey, who had his biggest game of the year, finally jumpstarted the Trojans. Three plays later, Martin followed a couple nice blocks on a counter and scampered 18 yards to pay dirt to knot the game up 6-6.
West Marion got the ball back with just 1:09 to play in the first half with only one timeout, but it turned out the Trojans needed just one play to go into halftime with a lead. Qavonte Swanigan ran a go route, burned the cornerback and caught a 62-yard touchdown in stride from Jayden Duncan to make it 13-6. The quarterback had said he had got down on himself after missing on his first six passes before the 32-yarder to Harvey and the touchdown to Swanigan, but he said once he completed the first one it was “go time.”
In the third quarter, Harvey had a sack and a big tackle for loss on back-to-back plays that preceded Jaydon Clements coming down with an interception. Then Swanigan caught another deep ball from Duncan for a 54-yard score to put the Trojans up 20-6. It was a well-designed play with the Trojans once again sneaking their best athlete in at tight end. They had a backfield motion and faked a swing pass while Swanigan ran free up the middle of the field.
Following another sack by Harvey to force a punt, he broke free for a 46-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive. He appeared to be wrapped up by two Jaguars defenders but managed to wiggle free to increase the lead to 26-6 going into the fourth quarter.
“If he was 6-foot or even 5-foot-10, everyone in the country would be after him because he’s a player; he really is,” Duncan said of Harvey. “Octavious was a man possessed. He has so much heart.”
West Marion's Octavious Harvey flexes after a sack. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
On West Marion’s next drive, the Trojans ran the ball nine straight plays for 72 yards with the imposing drive capped off by a 17-yard Jakaden Mark touchdown. They added one more score before it was all said and done with Jatavius Brooks running in an 8-yard touchdown.
West Marion’s physicality took over in the second half, allowing the Trojans to impose their will with their running game and shut down Jeff Davis’ vaunted rushing attack. The Trojans racked up more than 350 offensive yards while holding the Jaguars to just under 200.
West Marion has another tough test this week as it travels Thursday to take on Magee (3-0). The Magee Trojans missed two games because of a coronavirus quarantine but have outscored opponents 116-36 in their three games.
Senior Chandler Pittman, a three-star athlete committed to Ole Miss, is back as Magee’s quarterback and is putting up monster numbers yet again. He’s averaging 240 passing yards per game with 11 touchdowns and is averaging 111 yards on the ground with five more scores.
“They’re probably the fastest team we’ve seen with their overall team speed. The Pittman kid is as fast as any kid we’ll see. They have a running back (Jawon Shaw) who is really good. They have a receiver (Xavier Franks), No. 7, that is really special,” Duncan said. “The quarterback is really scary. He’s running the ball more this year. They’ll spread you out to find him seams, and he’s really fast.”
Franks already has 24 catches for 511 yards and seven touchdowns, but West Marion went into the Magee matchup last year with Magee posing the same threat (43.9 points per game going in) and forced Pittman and Franks into their worst games of the year in a 12-7 victory. Duncan said he’s expecting defensive coordinator Brandon Thornhill to come up with another brilliant game plan to take away Magee’s strengths.
“Last year was a dog fight at 12-7. It’s going to be harder this year,” Duncan said. “They’re a year wiser, and we lost some really good kids defensively. It’s really scary.”
Pittman completed just 50% of his passes with no touchdowns and a pick last year while being held to just 40 yards rushing. West Marion also limited Franks to just four catches for 19 yards, but Ott Mitchell is no longer around to cover him after graduating.
West Marion is ranked No. 4 in Class 3A behind Magee at No. 3, and Martin said the Trojans continue to be viewed as underdogs but are ready to take their throne.
