For as great as West Marion’s defense has been all year, the Trojans’ stingy unit turned in their best performance of the year at Yazoo County Friday night to advance to the third round of the playoffs. With Blaten Norris and Jordyn Mahaffey getting consistent pressure inside, Ka’Marius Husband securing the edge and Qavonte Swanigan erasing the Panthers’ best player, West Marion (12-1) held them to just 26 total yards of offense in a 36-0 beat down.
Yazoo County (10-3) quarterback Kobe Fisher also rolled his ankle on the first possession of the game, which limited his mobility, and the Trojans teed off on him.
“They were in deep trouble then,” Trojans head coach Brad Duncan said. “Blaten is just amazing; he really is. With the center and the guard (doubling him) and a lot of times the back helping out, he was still creating havoc in there. Jordyn has consistently gotten better. Then Mookie (Husband) at end, the last month he’s been really, really good for us.”
Late in the week the Trojans learned they would be without top cornerback Ott Mitchell, who was expected to shadow Yazoo’s Corey Rucker, so they moved Swanigan from free safety to corner. Rucker came into the game with 994 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, but Swanigan limited him to five catches for just two yards and intercepted a pass intended for Rucker.
With a trip to the south state championship on the line, the Trojans will play host to Jeff Davis County (7-5) Friday night in a rematch of an early October matchup that took two nights to finish because of inclement weather. The Trojans won 16-6, but Duncan said a lot is different this time around.
“They were kind of banged up when we played them early in the year, and they have their kids back. The quarterback is back, the running back is healthy again and the linebackers are back so those people they had missed are ready to go,” he said. “They’re feeling confident on a win streak, and they’re used to winning. They’re used to being in these situations so it’s going to be a tough one.”
The Jaguars run an odd-man front defensively with eight men in the box a lot of the time, and Duncan said the Trojans will have to attack the flats because that’s the one area they sometimes leave open. He said their inside linebackers are usually responsible for the flats, and it’s a cat-and-mouse game trying to decipher which one is doing what.
“We had some opportunities the first time around where we didn’t make plays where we thought we should’ve made plays. Hopefully we got better, and hopefully we can make those plays now,” Duncan said.
Jeff Davis runs its offense out of the Wing-T, which the Trojans have defended several times this year and excelled against. In the first matchup, West Marion limited the Jaguars to just 78 yards while racking up 17 tackles for loss, six sacks and a safety.
With a win over Jeff Davis, the Trojans would play either Columbia (12-0) or Magee (10-3) next week. All four teams left in the south are from Region 8-3A, and Duncan said he wishes the playoffs were structured differently.
“We have the toughest division in high school football, and it’s a shame that some of us are going to have to go home this week. It’s a shame because two or three of us can actually win a state championship from the south,” he said.
Jartavious Martin set the tone for West Marion’s defense Friday night against Yazoo County with a tackle for loss on the first play that led to a three-and-out. After Trojans quarterback Jeremiah Holmes was intercepted on West Marion’s opening drive, Mahaffey got a big sack on 4th-and-10 to get the ball back.
The Trojans then ran 12 straight running plays on a 62-yard drive punctuated by a 10-yard touchdown by Martin. After another three-and-out for Yazoo, the snap went over the punter’s head and out of the back of the end zone for a safety that put West Mario up 9-0.
Midway through the second quarter, Larry Magee picked up a lead block from Holmes on a toss and raced 58 yards to pay dirt to make it 15-0. Then Swanigan intercepted a pass before catching a 17-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive that made it 22-0 going into halftime.
Swanigan caught another touchdown in the third quarter on a screen where Husband took out the corner to spring the 42-yard score. Octavious Harvey sniffed out a fake punt after another Yazoo three-and-out, and Holmes ran in a 2-yard touchdown to make it 36-0.
The Trojans were able to do anything they wanted offensively behind a strong rushing attack that averaged 6.7 yards per carry and had more than 250 yards.
“They didn’t really have an answer for it,” Duncan said. “They don’t see a lot of it in the league they play in because they’re all spread stuff playing 7-on-7 (football) so they really don’t like that. The offensive line was pretty solid again. We had a bunch of mistakes, jumping offsides and couldn’t hear cadence that we have to clean up. But we ran the power, ran the blast, showed the counter and had a little bit of success with it coming off the power, and I was very pleased. We get another week to make some memories and enjoy the journey.”
Mahaffey and Norris each had 1.5 sacks, and Husband had two tackles for loss.
Pictured Above: West Marion running back Jartavious Martin totes the rock against Yazoo County Friday night. The Trojans rushed for more than 250 yards in the 36-0 win to advance to the Class 3A quarterfinals. | Photo courtesy of The Yazoo Herald
