West Marion will travel as a No. 3 seed to play No. 2 seed Raleigh in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs Friday.
The Trojans lost an opportunity to host a postseason game as six turnovers caused them to blow a 20-0 lead in a 23-22 loss Friday night in Foxworth to Tylertown.
But the bright side is that West Marion (5-6) has already defeated Raleigh (4-7) once this year. The Trojans won 26-21 on Sept. 8 in Raleigh.
“The good news is, after six turnovers and losing a heartbreaker, we still get to play,” head coach Brad Duncan said. “We’re going to go on the road and play a team we’ve faced the past several years. We beat (Raleigh) early in the year in a close game. We’re still alive.”
The Trojans defense will have its hands full attempting to stop Kris Moncrief, who is the cousin of former Ole Miss Rebel and current Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Donte Moncrief. Kris Moncrief has always put up big numbers, but hasn’t always lived up to his hype or talent. At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds with home run speed, he should dominate week in and week out but hasn’t. That is until recently, according to Duncan.
“He’s a difference maker. It looks like on film that he’s realized that he is the biggest, strongest and fastest kid on the field,” Duncan said. “He’s took over for them down the stretch. It’ll be interesting to see our itty bitty guys trying to tackle that monster. It’s going to be a dog fight.”
While Moncrief did have his best statistical game of the season against the Trojans with 241 yards rushing and two touchdowns, West Marion held him in check for the most part. The majority of his yardage came from long runs that were blocked well, but if he has indeed taken that next step, it will be a big challenge for West Marion in the first round of the playoffs.
Friday night against Tylertown, West Marion jumped out quickly. The Trojans took a 6-0 lead with 9:18 left in the first quarter when wide receiver Dontavious McGowan took a screen pass from quarterback Jeremiah Holmes, got a good block and sprinted in for a 46-yard touchdown.
The rain started falling soon after that, but it didn’t seem to slow the Trojans down. They got the ball deep in Tylertown territory after forcing the Chiefs to punt from their own 2 yard line. Holmes ended a short drive by sneaking up the middle to put the score at 12-0 with 9:40 left in the second quarter.
Then freshman Qavonte Swanigan picked off a Tylertown pass, his fourth of the season, and less than a minute later Cyrus Thompson leaped to pull down a pass from Holmes in the end zone for a 24-yard score. McGowan then grabbed a tipped ball on the two-point conversion to make the score 20-0 with 6:53 to go until the half.
But then Tylertown’s track speed took over the game. With the ball on Tylertown’s own 2-yard line and less than a minute left on the clock before halftime, Jashon Baker connected with Keyon Jefferson for a 98-yard touchdown to make it 20-6.
Then, less than a minute into the second half, Baker hit Jefferson on another deep ball for a 40-yard touchdown to cut it to 20-13. Duncan lauded the Chiefs speed on the outside.
“They could run by us any time they wanted to. They scored on the first play of the third quarter with another home run pass,” he said. “They just had guys that could run by us, and their quarterback could really spin that sucker. Their speed was the difference. We played with a cushion, and they were still able to get behind us. They win in track every year for a reason.”
Outside of the big plays it gave up, Duncan liked what he saw from the Trojans defense. Especially since it was able to extend the Trojans lead to 22-13 late in the third quarter when Keyon Brister made a tackle in the end zone for a safety.
“Our defense, except for the couple of home run plays, was really good,” Duncan said. “Keyon had a really big game. The play before he got the safety he had a tackle for loss and had several throughout the game. Our guys inside stopped them.”
Just before the end of the third quarter, though, Da’Bryan Magee took matters into his own hands for the Chiefs, rushing for a 67-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 22-21. Then disaster struck for the Trojans on the ensuing kickoff, leading to a safety and the first Chiefs’ lead of the game.
“All season long they’ve been kicking it short, so we had most of our better guys up where they’ve been kicking it all year. This time, the kicker decided to kick it deep, and we had a baby back there,” Duncan said. “He had to back up to try and catch it and ended up trying to catch it above his head. He dropped it and when he went to pick it up, he was down on one knee so we were backed up inside the 5. We ran a zone play, they brought the house and our guys didn’t pick it up.”
Neither offense could get out of its own way in the fourth quarter with a series of turnovers, but the Trojans had a shot to win it at the end. Jayden Duncan was inserted at quarterback for a last-second heave into the end zone, but his pass was intercepted to end the game.
While turning the ball over six times certainly cost the Trojans, their inability to churn the clock on the ground with a lead was just as crippling.
“For some reason, we weren’t able to run the football at all,” Duncan said. “Charles (Lewis) got hurt and ended up with a concussion. But we just weren’t able to run the ball. We weren’t blocking them up front. It got muddy and slick, and it was hard to pull away.”
Another facet that cost the Trojans was not converting their two-point conversions following their first two touchdowns of the game.
“They stopped us on our two-point plays. They’re important. We got beat by one, and we missed two 2-point conversions,” Duncan said. “We get one of those and win the ball game.”
Pictured Above: Charles Lewis bursts into the open field for a big gain against Tylertown Friday night in the regular season finale for the Trojans. | Photo by Charlie Smith
