An athletic defense that runs to the ball and delivers bone-crushing blows when they get there continues to be the primary reason the West Marion Trojans remain undefeated. The Trojans (5-0) controlled the action at Sumrall Friday night from start to finish in a 43-0 blowout victory.
It was West Marion’s third shutout of the 2019, and the Trojans defense has only allowed 20 points all year through five games. West Marion also kept its season-long streak of holding opponents under 200 yards and set a new season-low as Sumrall tallied less than 80 yards.
“We’re proud of the defense; we really are,” head coach Brad Duncan said. “We’ve given up 20 points on the season. Blaten Norris was really good again up front. Octavious (Harvey) will always be around the football making a lot of tackles. Jordyn Mahaffey is always going to be pretty solid and consistent inside and is a hard guy to block. Defensively it’s been five games we’ve played really, really well in.”
The Trojans defense will have a different task on its hands Friday, though, as West Marion travels to take on Class 4A Vancleave (3-2). The Bulldogs are coming off a 35-10 victory over South Jones and ill be the first team the Trojans have played that throws the ball consistently.
While Vancleave technically runs the ball around 75 percent of the time, quarterback Christian Kell leads the squad in carries with many of them coming on scrambles on passing plays. Duncan said it’s going to be interesting to see how West Marion’s secondary matches up with the Bulldogs, and he’s glad it will get the exposure.
“Down the road we have Magee coming up out of our division, and they’re a spread, throw it around all the time team. We need some work to get our secondary and linebackers to get them used to having cover passes instead of having to fill in run support all the time,” he said. “We need to take advantage of that and get better at that if we want to have a chance down the road.”
Duncan added Vancleave is a big, physical football team that has more depth with its larger roster than the Trojans, but he also said it’s easy to get caught up in comparing teams and their focus will remain on improving from within.
“We had way too many penalties and had like seven where we jumped offsides or lined up offsides. Stuff like that we really need to clean up because it’s only going to get harder,” he said. “Each week is going to be tougher.”
Jeremiah Holmes and Qavonte Swanigan got the party started Friday night at Sumrall in the first quarter with the duo connecting for a 38-yard touchdown. Swanigan lined up as a detached wing and ran a seam route up the middle of field, and Holmes led him perfectly into the end zone.
The Trojans put up 25 points in an explosive second quarter and added six more in both the third and fourth quarters. Octavious Harvey had touchdown runs of 15 and 14 yards, and Jartavious Martin had a 3-yard score. It was the passing game that produced the big plays, though.
O’Marion Husband, who has flashed deep-threat ability before, had two long touchdown receptions, including a 54-yarder from Holmes.
“He’s got that big-play capability, and he was able to do that Friday night. We were very pleased with him,” Duncan said.
Duncan said the Trojans still want to hang their hat on running the ball, but they wanted to work on the passing game more (211 passing yards, three touchdowns) because they’re going to need it later in the season.
“I was very proud of Jeremiah. He had a good night throwing the ball,” he said. “We were able to run the ball when we wanted to and were over six yards a carry again. If you’re able to run the football and average six yards a carry, everything builds off that.”
The Trojans defense not only suffocated the Bobcats, but it also shortened the field for the West Marion offense on a couple of occasions. Martin intercepted a pass that Swanigan had broken up. Harvey broke through on a punt to hit the punter before he kicked it, and while the punter was able to get away Ott Mitchell blocked his attempt to punt it again. Harvey also caused a fumble that was recovered by Norris.
The Trojans defense combined for 10 tackles for loss, with eight different players registering at least one.
Pictured Above: Trojans defenders Jeremiah Holmes (2), Blake Lowery (1), Nick Thompson (22) and Qavonte Swanigan (8) line up against Forrest County AHS Sept. 13. West Marion has yet to allow an opponent to have 200 yards of offense. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
