Markevious Holmes’ 50-yard interception return for a touchdown was the difference as Coahoma County won its first spring football jamboree game against Madison Palmer High School at Coahoma Community College on Friday night.
The interception came with 1:08 remaining and gave the Red Panthers an 8-6 victory against the Dragons. Quarterback Lamont Lee ran in for the two-point conversion.
Coahoma County trailed 6-0 for most of the night.
Markevius Phillips also intercepted a pass on the final play to help secure the victory and Jamario Galmore sacked the quarterback on the play before.
The Red Panthers lost to Ray Brooks 12-0 in the second game.
“All around, it was just a great team effort for the guys to come together,” CCHS assistant coach Montez Griffin said. “We’re just leaving it out there for the spring.”
Griffin praised his defense’s effort.
“I know the back end, the secondary, they’re pretty good,” he said. “I knew those guys would come and play hard. My linebackers, they came and played hard. Defensive line, they played hard.”
Griffin specifically said the secondary had a lot of athletic ability.
“As far as Ray Brooks goes, we knew coming in they would have team speed,” he said. “Playing a game before here, that kind of blew us a bit. It was all fun and good, good conditioning workout.”
Lee played in a game for the first time since he was lost for the season in Week 3 against Shelby Broad Street on the same CCC field in 2017.
“He hasn’t played on this field since we played against Broad Street last year when he got injured,” Griffin said. “Offensively, we’ve got to get better at blocking and knowing how to block. It’s going to be all good.”
Griffin said Lee should not sit back and hold the ball as much and instead throw it more often. He did say Lee was 100 percent healthy.
The Red Panthers lost their top receiver from last season Derrick Moore Jr., who signed with Coahoma Community College. Griffin said other receivers expected to step up include Phillips, Jeffery Fisher and Holmes.
“Whoever is open, that’s who we’re going to throw it to,” Griffin said.
Griffin has been the only Red Panthers coach the entire spring, while the team had just two coaches last season. New head coach Mario Lane is expected to arrive for summer practice.
“We’re just going day-by-day, trying to keep the kids motivated, engaged,” Griffin said about how he has been running things as a one-person coaching staff. “We’re just working day-by-day, trying to keep them together, teaching team values. This is all we’ve got. It’s just us out here. We’re against everybody else right now. We’ve just got to come and stay as one. Stay focused on a task at hand and we can, hopefully, come out and have a good showing.”
Griffin said he expects the Red Panthers to have a larger coaching staff than last year.
He praised everyone on the team.
“I’m just extremely proud of them,” Griffin said. “They came, they worked this spring, especially it just being me out there. I just love those guys. They came. They worked hard and they had fun out there.”
