Special to the Item
The Picayune Item
POPLARVILLE —
Prior to kickoff Friday night, the public address announcer welcomed Lumberton High to Hornet Stadium, adding that “we hope you enjoy your night in Poplarville.”
The Class 2A Panthers did just that, and then some, as the Class 4A Hornets proved to be more than generous hosts.
After Lumberton scored on the opening possession of the game, Poplarville coughed up the football the first five times it had it, including a fumble that was returned 75 yards for a touchdown. The Panthers took advantage of short fields on the other four turnovers, leading 40-0 less than 14 minutes into what would eventually became a 40-6 victory.
“We’re a better football team than that,” Poplarville coach Chris Teal said. “I know we didn’t show it (Friday), but we’re better than that. We just can’t keep making the mistakes that we’ve been making and that we made again (Friday).”
Not when Poplarville’s game plan was built around keeping the ball out of the hands of an athletic Panthers’ offense, triggered by quarterback Darius Holder.
But after Lumberton (3-0) took the opening kickoff on a five-play, 59-yard drive, capped by a 31-yard touchdown run by Randy Chavis, Poplarville (0-3) kept feeding the ball back to the Panthers.
On the Hornets’ first play following Chavis’ jaunt, freshman running back Tyus Raine never got a handle on a handoff, juggling the ball before he was separated from it at the 32-yard line, where Demario Hughes fell on it for the Panthers. Three plays later, Keshod Willis took an option pitch to the right, and outran the pursuit for a 27-yard scoring run. Holder hit Mike Gay with a 2-point conversion pass and the Panthers led 14-0.
On the Hornets’ first play after the kickoff, sophomore quarterback Drake Hodges tried to hit a quick slant route. But Lumberton defensive end Charles Goins batted the ball into the air then snared it at the Poplarville 37.
Three plays later, Holder crossed up the Hornets on play-action, and found a wide-open Oshea Grice down the left side for a 30-yard touchdown and a 20-0 lead.
On the next series, Poplarville finally got something going behind Raine and fullback JJ Welch, driving down to the Panther 26. But Welch lost the ball while straining for an extra yard, and Willis gobbled up the ball at the 25 and set sail for the end zone. Holder scored on a 2-point conversion run and Poplarville led 28-0.
“What was frustrating was the game plan worked when we didn’t make mistakes and give them the football,” Teal said. “We take the ball and go six plays and we’re driving and then we fumble it away. It really was unbelievable.”
And about to get moreso. Two plays into Poplarville’s next possession, Holder picked off Hodges over the middle and returned it 31 yards to the 10. Holder’s 4-yard option keeper on fourth down made it 34-0 with 1 minute, 2 seconds, left in the first quarter.
“It was good to see us get off to a good start,” Lumberton coach Brian Ford said. “We were able to get the ball back, got some points out of it, and that was good to see .”
He saw it again on the first snap of the second quarter, when Jamaal Taylor pounced on a Welch fumble at the Panthers’ 47 yards line.
Lumberton needed just two plays from there, a 16-yard run by Holder and then Chavis’ 37-yard burst on a straight handoff up the middle. That made it 40-0 at the 10:20 mark of the second quarter and ended the evening’s festivities for Holder and the majority of Lumberton’s offensive starters.
Poplarville got on the board to start the third quarter, when senior receiver Dexter Childs returned the second-half kickoff 69 yards to the Panther 17-yard line. Neeko Lockhart contributed a key, 8-yard run on third-and-8, and Raine carried three times for 10 yards, including the final 3 yards with 6:48 left in the quarter.
