West Marion was confident heading into Friday night’s first round matchup at Raleigh after beating the Lions on the road in Week 4.
While it was far from pretty, the Trojans’ confidence was justifiable as they held off a late comeback attempt to beat Raleigh 22-20 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
Head coach Brad Duncan acknowledged that although the Trojans aren’t going to blow out many opponents, they are going to fight to the very end.
“There’s nothing that’s going to be easy for this group. We’ve said it since the first couple of weeks and it’s still in play. Our kids are going to play hard and everything is going to be a competition. Everything is going to be a battle,” he said. “When we were here (Raleigh) eight weeks ago, we were 0-3 coming into here and who would have thought we would be going into round two of the playoffs? The only ones who thought that were the kids in our locker room. They really believed we could battle back. They really believed we could get better and they have. We’re not great by any means, but we play hard to give ourselves a chance. If you give yourself a chance, you’re going to have some success. I’m so proud of them.”
Next up for the Trojans is a 9-2 Hazelhurst squad that is coming off of a 51-27 win over Morton in the first round. The Indians are yet another Wing-T team that wears their opponents down with a stable of backs, four of which have rushed for more than 500 yards this season.
“They’re a good football team. They do a good job of running the football and their offensive line comes off the ball and blocks really well,” Duncan said. “They don’t depend on one (running back). They have several they can put the ball in their hands. They’re a really sound, good football team. You can see why they’re 9-2.”
Nearly half of the teams the Trojans have played this season run the Wing-T, which is an advantage for West Marion because its defense already understands the importance of playing assignment football.
“I don’t think we’ll have to spend as much time preparing for it because we’ve seen it for so many weeks this season,” Duncan said. “They do things a little bit different, though. They do more with the fullback than the wingbacks. But it’s basically the same thing we’ve been seeing from all of the other Wing-T teams.”
The biggest advantage for the Trojans perhaps is that they will be hosting Friday night at 7 rather than heading to one of the most hostile environments in Mississippi at Hazelhurst.
“I would much rather be at home than have to go over there,” Duncan said. “It’s a very unique experience to go over there to say the least.”
If the Trojans beat Hazelhurst, they will move on to face the winner between Forest (9-3) and Tylertown (8-4).
Friday night, the Trojans offense got off to a bad start with an interception and a three-and-out on its first two possessions, but Raleigh failed to capitalize as the Lions missed a field goal and lost a fumble — stripped by Qavonte Swanigan and recovered by Alex Dillon.
Sparked by a 48-yard run by Adryane James — which was by far his best run of the night as he gained just six yards on his other 10 carries — the Trojans struck first as Jeremiah Holmes threw a quick screen to Swanigan, who broke a tackle and scored from five yards out. The Trojans converted the two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead with just under three minutes left in the first quarter.
Following back-to-back punts, Raleigh answered with a Kris Moncrief 4-yard touchdown run but failed to convert the two-point conversion, making it 8-6.
The Trojans had a chance to add to their lead before halftime, but Dontavius McGowan was stripped at the tail end of a 24-yard catch and run, and Raleigh ran out the clock to head into halftime. Duncan said it was a heck of a play by the Lions defensive back to strip McGowan.
“When Dontavius had the big catch down the sideline — their No. 7 (Margro Perkins) on film we saw him have three strips last week and two the week before; he does a heck of a job with that — we preached all week that (Perkins) is coming and he’s going to try to strip the ball,” he said. “That’s exactly what he did. He made a play.”
After a series of stalled drives to begin the second half, the Trojans came up with a big turnover, recovering a fumble at the Raleigh 21. West Marion needed just three plays to find pay dirt as McGowan caught a tunnel screen and sprinted in for a 16-yard touchdown. Holmes connected with Cyrus Thompson on a shovel pass on the two-point conversion to give the Trojans a 16-6 lead with 3:22 remaining in the third quarter.
However, Raleigh’s running game finally broke through as Moncrief darted through a huge hole up the gut and raced for a 68-yard touchdown. The Lions made the extra point, cutting the deficit to 16-13 just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The Trojans nearly coughed up the game on the ensuing possession as Holmes lost a fumble to give Raleigh great field position, but their defense stepped up with a big tackle for loss on fourth-and-3 to set up the play of the game.
Swanigan caught a screen pass on the first play of the ensuing drive, juked a defender, then did a highlight worthy spin move to make two defenders miss and broke into the open field for a 59-yard touchdown.
“He was (the difference maker) for us. He was big,” Duncan said of Swanigan. “We could throw the slip (screen) we thought going in. We thought we could throw what we wanted to. Our guys stepped up when we had to.”
All three of the Trojans’ touchdowns came on receiver screens, which essentially served as an extension of the running game with starting running back Charles Lewis out. Duncan said the quick screens in the passing game were a huge weapon for the Trojans with Lewis out and James in as the top running back.
“Adryane does a good job, but he’s (160 pounds) sticking it up in there where Charles is about 190 sticking it up in there. That does make a difference,” he said. “So we did have to try and change once again. We had to go back to what we did earlier in the season when Charles hurt his ankle with the quick passing game.”
While the Trojans failed to convert the two-point attempt following Swanigan’s long touchdown, the score made it a two-possession 22-13 game with time running out on Raleigh’s season. The Trojans had a chance to run out the clock after forcing a punt, but James dropped a pitch that set up Raleigh inside West Marion’s territory with three minutes to play.
The Lions cut into the lead with a circus catch in the end zone and the PAT, but with only one timeout and 1:21 on the clock they needed an onside kick to get the ball back.
While Raleigh did call for an onside kick, the Lions kicker panicked when he saw the Trojans with nine players ready to field the short kick and instead kicked it deep, according to Raleigh head coach Jeff Stockstill.
The Trojans easily fell on the deep kick and figured out that three quarterback kneels would end the game.
“Our coaches did a heck of a job (at the end of the game). I’m trying to do the math in my head — (Raleigh) has one timeout left — and I’m trying to figure out if we can run out the clock if we take a knee. I’m not the greatest mathematician, but (Brandon) Thornhill and (Todd) Harmon said we have plenty of time,” Duncan explained.
Pictured Above: Qavonte Swanigan picks up a block from Nolan Miller on the first of his two touchdowns against Raleigh. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
