West Marion head coach Brad Duncan was worried going into Friday night’s contest that the Trojans would come out flat following all of the extracurricular activities that come with homecoming week, but they more than answered the call with a 47-7 blowout victory over Forrest County AHS.
“This is a heck of a week with so much stuff going on, and I think it worries us more as coaches than it worries the kids. But they’re out rolling and every night out doing something, then today, all day long, was hectic with the parade and stuff going on. It’s all fine and good; they’re making memories. I tried to get across to them that all those are good memories no doubt, but if you come out here and lay an egg tonight that’s the memory you’re going to end up having,” he said after the game. “But they responded.”
With a 4-0 start under their belts, the Trojans will head to Sumrall Friday night to take on the Bobcats (2-2). Sumrall opened the year with back-to-back wins over South Jones (39-21) and Wesson (30-6) but has dropped consecutive games to Seminary (20-0) and Presbyterian Christian (3-0).
“Now we have to become road warriors. We’re going to be on the road for three weeks. We have another 4A school next week,” Duncan said Friday. “(Sumrall) has had a rough time with some injuries over there the last three weeks and have several out, but they’re a 4A school that’s going to play hard and they have a lot of pride over there. Coach Shannon White is one of the best around and one of the best coaches in the state.”
The Bobcats are led by sophomore quarterback John Ford, who has thrown for 399 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 118 yards. The defense is spearheaded by James Ford, who leads the squad with 36 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks.
Both defenses dominated the first nine minutes of action Friday before Octavious Harvey blocked a Forrest County punt that set the Trojans up at the Aggies 25. Four plays later quarterback Jeremiah Holmes trucked his way into the end zone on a quarterback power from 1 yard out, and Brian Blakeney added the PAT to put West Marion up 7-0 with 1:29 remaining in the first quarter.
Then Qavonte Swanigan forced a fumble on the kickoff that was recovered by Larry Magee to give the Trojans another short field at the Aggies 20. After Swanigan captured the corner for a gain of 15, Holmes scampered into the end zone again from 5 yards out to make it 14-0 with less than a minute to go in the opening frame.
The Aggies run-based offense finally found its footing on the ensuing possession, but the Trojans came up with a big fourth-down stop to get the ball back. On 4th-and-1 at the West Marion 26, Swanigan laid a big hit and Harvey wrapped him up to end the drive.
On the very next play Harvey found a big hole up the gut and turned on the jets for a 74-yard touchdown. Two minutes later Jartavious “Tater Rabbit” Martin caught a swing pass, made a man miss and was off to the races for a 64-yard touchdown to make it 27-0 going into halftime.
“Offensively it’s about getting the ball in space to those guys. Our run game tonight was north and south, and they made the plays. The offensive line — I don’t know what Teddy (Williams) is going to grade out at, but that sucker was awesome and I think he had a really good game again at right tackle. The whole line looked good. We were concerned about that and being able to run the football, and our guys responded.”
West Marion had to switch its game plan after the first few drives because of Aggie defensive lineman Gage Glover. The Trojans had prepared to use their H-back to block to his side, but it wasn’t working. So they adjusted to run away from the H-back because Glover was moving to the H-back side of the formation, and it allowed them to finally gain some traction on the ground.
But it was the passing game that set up West Marion’s fifth scoring drive as Holmes connected with Swanigan and Ott Mitchell for gains of 21 and 17 yards, respectively, and led to Harvey’s second rushing touchdown on a 4-yard carry on the opening drive of the second half. Blakeney drilled his fourth extra point of the night to make it 34-0 with 8:54 on the clock in the third quarter.
West Marion’s defense stood strong on another fourth down then forced a punt after the Trojans offense stalled. Martin returned the punt to the Aggies 35 and set up a Swanigan 11-yard rushing score that made it 41-0 early in the fourth quarter. With the game firmly in hand each team found the end zone once in the waning minutes, including Gabe Miller catching a screen pass from Holmes, breaking a tackle and scoring a 37-yard touchdown.
Forrest County AHS hardly managed to get over the century mark of total yardage offensively, making it four straight weeks the Trojans have held their opponent to under 200 yards. West Marion’s defense only accomplished that feat twice in 2018.
“Our defense has been lights out all year so far,” Duncan said. “We have a good group that runs to the football, that is aggressive. We’re getting some rotation in where people are getting a little bit of rest because we’re doing that both offensively and defensively to stay fresh. But the defense has really been lights out.”
Pictured Above: West Marion quarterback Jeremiah Holmes celebrates the first of his four touchdowns Friday night with Jordyn Mahaffey. The Trojans face Sumrall on the road Friday. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
