MARKS — It has been second-half performances for two consecutive weeks that led Coahoma County High School to its first two district wins of the football season.
The Red Panthers (4-2, 2-1) trailed 6-0 at half, but came back to win at Madison Shannon Palmer High School 26-14.
Coahoma County trailed 7-6 at the half at home against Strayhorn two weeks ago, but came back to win 28-7.
The two wins to secure a No. 3 spot in the division for Coahoma County and the Red Panthers still have a chance at hosting a playoff game.
“It seems like the guys are just taking a little minute,” said Red Panthers coach McKinley Scott after the win at Madison Shannon Palmer. “Honestly, the defense has been doing a really, really good job holding down for the offense until we figured out what we can do against the opposing team. What we had this time was we had a lot of bad snaps, guys miscuing on some of the same plays. What we did was we just talked to them, got them back together and I got my quarterback to just go talk to everybody and just let the offense know we’ve got to do better.”
Josiah Tompkins of Coahoma County blocked Dragons punter Xavier Valentine’s kick. That gave Coahoma County possession at the Madison Shanon Palmer 34.
A Tyson Lee 21-yard run set up a 13-yard touchdown run from quarterback Devonte Boyd with 6:28 remaining in the third quarter. The 2-point conversion gave Coahoma County an 8-6 lead.
Another Boyd touchdown run extended the lead to 14-6.
Madison Shannon Palmer’s Quintavieon Davis had a 1-yard run with 10:39 remaining in the fourth quarter. Latrevon Wilbourn ran in the 2-point conversion to tie things up at 14-14.
Boyd had a 37-yard touchdown pass to Thompkins and, following a Keyshun Mattox fumble recovery, ran in another to give Coahoma County a 26-14 lead with 6:27 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Markevious Thomas had an interception for Coahoma County to secure the win late. He also had an interception in the first half and was the kicker and punter.
Xavier Valentine had a 7-yard touchdown run for Madison Shannon Palmer early.
“Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers,” said Dragons coach Billy Fields after the loss. “I’ve got a lot of young ninth graders I’m playing. We’re just young. We just can’t finish. We’re playing the first half. We just can’t play four quarters. Give them credit. They got the momentum. They rolled with it.”
Madison Palmer is 1-7 and 1-2 in district and currently holds the No. 4 spot in the district, but Fields still had concerns.
“I think I took a step back today,” Fields said. “We’ve just got to get them coached up and try to get ready for Charleston and Northside.”
Scott praised his defense for setting up offensive scores.
“We got a fumble and then it set us up for a touchdown,” Scott said. “And after that we just were rolling. Our guys, they’ve got to get more energetic from the jump. It shouldn’t take scoring a touchdown to get you going in the right direction. They need to learn how to be prepared and ready to go from the beginning.”
Boyd was injured late after a hard hit that was a penalty on the Dragons. Boyd left in an ambulance, but he just had a concussion.
“He’s a special player and I pray that everything is OK with him,” Scott said. “We’re going to head back and check on him and make sure he’s good. Hopefully, everything is good. I look forward to him being back on the field.”
Porter Harris came in the game at quarterback after Boyd’s injury.
Coahoma County is at Clarksdale at 7 p.m. Thursday in a non-district game.
“Playing Clarksdale will at least give us a group of guys,” Scott said. “If we can just compete, it will teach our guys to be competitive and get ready for Charleston. Charleston is going to be a really good team and I think Clarksdale will set us up for that.”
The Red Panthers close the regular season in a district matchup at home against Charleston.
“If we beat Charleston, we either have a home game or have a chance for it to be a three-way tie,” Scott said.
