Friday Night Writes: South Panola @ MCHS- 2nd Round 6A Playoffs

The 2nd Round of the 6A MHSAA Playoffs begin tonight. Arguably the most intriguing match up of the night, the South Panola Tigers will take on the Madison Central Jaguars. The Tigers have ended the Jag's past three seasons. The Jags are just plain tired of losing to South Panola. South Panola is the standard of football in the state of Mississippi. They have won 8 state championships since 1993. 5 of those were in a row. And if they didn't win the championship, they were runner up. That's right. They have been to the state championship every year since 1993.

Madison Central is led by seniors Drew Rowell and Hugh Warren who lead the team in rushing with over 2,000 combined yards. The Jags will be without leading running back Brandon Moore for the rest of the season. He is out with a broken wrist. The Jags will have to rely on sophomore RB's Doug Ball and Dillan Langley. However, the Jags will mainly rely on Rowell and Warren.

The University of South Panola will ride a 6 game win streak into The Jungle. They are led by 5 players who have rushed for over 100 yards this season. Namely, Antonio Conners leads the team with over 1,400 rushing yards this season. They are led on defense by Ole Miss commits Issac Gross (he's a huge human. HUGE.) and Temerio Strong. The Tigers will be without QB Tevis Flowers who was arrested this past week for shoplifting a Gatorade towel from Wal-mart.

KEYS TO THE GAME

• The Jags will have to win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. On offense they must account for both Temerio Strong and Issac Gross. On defense, they will have to keep the massive South Panola O-Line in check.
• If your a Jag, stop Antonio Conners and you will stop the Tigers. He is the key to their offense. If your a Tiger, force the run game on the smaller Jag defense. FORCE IT.
• The sophomore RB's for MC must hold on to the ball. And if your S.P., make the sophomores FEEL your presence.
• For both teams, make your field goals and extra points. This game might be that close.

Team Stats (Maxpreps.com)

Rushing Yards/ game: SP, 245/ MC, 350
Passing Yards/ game: SP, 71/ MC, 41
Yards/ game: SP, 316/ MC, 391
Tackles/ game: SP, 38/ MC, 54
Points/ game: SP, 29/ MC, 35


Prediction: Close game in the first half. Jags pull away in the 3rd Quarter. MCHS-24, UofSP-14