Thanks to a mightily impressive rushing attack and a suffocating defense, the West Marion Trojans punched their ticket to the second round of the Class 3A playoffs with a 54-23 blowout victory over Crystal Springs Friday night.
With 518 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, the Trojans (8-2) ran wild on the Tigers (6-4), and head coach Brad Duncan said the offensive line did a heck of a job.
“Their defense didn’t really make any adjustments and just kept giving us the run game so we stayed with it. I’ll take it. It’s means we get to move on; that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “Octavious ran the ball really well. We had like (eight) running backs that ended up with at least one carry. I didn’t expect it to be that way because Crystal Springs has some good players.”
He credited all six linemen — tackles Teddy Williams and Ethan Hibley, guards Jarvis Craft, Cade Heurtin and Devon Hutto and center Ethan Holden — along with Kobe Pittman, who was subbing in for tight end Cooper Foxworth who was dealing with a hamstring injury.
The Trojans will go on the road Friday in the second round to take on Kemper County (8-2) at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba. The Wildcats are back on the upswing after a few down years following their 2016 state title and have the talent to compete with West Marion.
Duncan said Dicenzo Miller II, who has rushed for 1,511 yards and 16 touchdowns, is a really good running back and quarterback Aaron Steele, who has thrown for 16 touchdowns and ran for 12 more, can make plays as well. Kemper County’s defense is used to facing spread offenses and usually lines up in a 4-2-5 nickel, but Duncan said the Wildcats will switch to a 5-2 or 5-3 when opposing offenses start having success in the running game.
“They have a linebacker, No. 8 (Ishmael Naylor), who makes a pile of tackles. He flies around to the football really well and stands out for them,” he said. “We’re going to need to be able to reach him with our blocks on the second level. We’re going to run our ‘power’ and hopefully have our tight end or tackle come down on him to block him.”
If the Trojans win and Columbia beats Hazlehurst, the Trojans will play host to Columbia next week with the right to go to South State championship on the line.
The Trojans defense set the tone right out of the gate Friday on the opening possession with three straight tackles for loss to force a punt. Then on the heels of an 18-yard Jartavious Martin run and a 28-yarder by Octavious Harvey, Martin made a couple Tigers defenders miss on his way to a 25-yard touchdown scamper to put West Marion up 7-0 four minutes into the game. Martin hyperextended his knee on the way to the end zone, though, and tried to play through it but was taken out for the remainder of the game following the next series. He said he didn’t feel any pain and there wasn’t any swelling, and the hope is he will be ready to go Friday.
West Marion forced another punt, leading to Harvey find pay dirt on a 30-yard run that made it 13-0. The Trojans backed up Crystal Springs into a fourth-and-30 on the ensuing possession, setting the Trojans up at the Tigers 47. Six plays later they were into the end zone again as Jakaden Mark spun off a tackler at the goal line for an 8-yard touchdown to make it 19-0 seconds into the second quarter.
The Tigers finally got a spark in the form of a 65-yard touchdown pass from Navarion Benson to Xavier Buie. Both Jaydon Clements and Qavonte Swanigan were there on the sideline when Buie hauled in the pass, but Clements went for the ball and Swanigan whiffed on the tackle, allowing Buie to run free and cut the deficit to 19-7.
Despite an illegal formation penalty wiping out a 53-yard O’Marion Husband reception on the first play of West Marion’s next drive, the Trojans had no trouble marching downfield for another touchdown. Following four runs of at least 11 yards, including a 28-yard run by Harvey, West Marion expanded its lead to 25-7 as Harvey coasted in for a 5-yard score.
Swanigan then made up for his missed tackle with a leaping interception with his return getting the Trojans to the Crystal Springs 30. Larry Magee increased West Marion’s lead to 32-7 just before the end of the first half with a 10-yard touchdown run, and the rout was on.
Swanigan got a touchdown of his own on the ground to open the second half, going untouched on a toss for a 5-yard score to make it 39-7. Magee found the end zone a second time to open the fourth quarter with an impressive 21-yard run that increased the lead to 46-7. Crystal Springs put together a 62-yard scoring drive in less than two minutes to make it 46-15, but the Trojans answered right back with Ka’Marius Husband carrying a defender nearly five yards on an 11-yard touchdown run that made it 54-15. The Tigers would later add a garbage-time touchdown against West Marion’s backups.
