Coahoma Early College High School has not put a complete game together through the first three weeks of the football season, but the wins are still coming.
The Tigers (2-1) jumped out to a 24-2 lead at home against Holly Springs Friday night and hung on to win 24-16.
Senior quarterback Willie Eagins had 87 passing yards, one 60-yard touchdown pass and 13 yards rushing. Senior running back Chris Russell had 89 rushing yards and one 30-yard touchdown along with an 85-yard punt return touchdown and six tackles. He also ran for one 2-point conversion. Senior wide receiver Demarco Williams caught a 60-yard touchdown reception from Eagins, senior running back Markevious Brown had 59 rushing yards, two 2-point conversions and seven tackles and two sacks on defense. Senior lineman Corey Suggs had 15 tackles and one interception and Jay Mitchell had nine tackles and two sacks.
“If we can just put it together, we’ve got the top athletes,” said CECHS coach Jeremiah Brassell. “I don’t care what anybody says – in the Delta, probably the state. We just need to put together that we can exploit it all.”
Senior cornerback Nyle Grandberry caught an interception in the end zone, was running, tackled by his own teammate and it was ruled a safety for Holly Springs.
“I thought it should have been a touchback,” Brassell said.
Brassell felt officiating was a factor throughout the night.
“Right now, for some reason, we’re letting another team just linger,” he said. “The officiating was a big question in this game. We had some penalties that were questionable and some not called. We had a couple pass interference calls they would not call, so it seemed like it was one-sided at times. But I’m not going to use that excuse. We just need to learn how to finish the game. It wasn’t fatigue or anything like that. We just need to mentally prepare to finish these games.”
Brassell said the running game was better than the first two weeks.
“For the first time in three weeks, we were able to run the ball consistently,” Brassell said. “We still tried throwing a pass or two. I tried surprising them one time and he ended up picking it off. He was wide open and Willie underthrew him, but the running game picked up this week with Chris and Markevious Brown.”
The Tigers are at Coahoma County High School at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Senior wide receiver and free safety Thomas Williams Jr. has a sprained MCL and is questionable for Thursday.
Brassell hopes the Tigers will play a complete game.
“I got three days to figure out what’s the problem and that’s what I’m going to fight this week, trying to figure out what’s going on because we’ve got a big name next week against County,” he said.
