Choctaw Central regroups from loss to West

Choctaw Central football coach Pepper Posey said his Warriors played solid defense for more than three and a half quarters.

It was that half quarter that spelled doom for the Warriors.

West Lauderdale scored 22 second-quarter points and added a late touchdown to take a 29-0 win over the Warriors on Thursday night.

With the loss, Choctaw Central falls to 4-5 (2-2 in 4-4A) on the season while West Lauderdale improves to 6-4 (3-1 in 4-4A). Choctaw will travel to Leake Central on Friday night in a game with the Gators that will determine Choctaw's playoff seeding.

For Posey, it was a tough loss against a talented West Lauderdale team who has played with some of the best teams in the area. But it all boiled down to about seven minutes in the second quarter.

"Honestly, I thought we played pretty well on defense for the majority of the game," Posey said. "They got into something that we had a hard time lining up to. That's the thing; good teams like West Lauderdale will hurt you if you line up wrong or make one mistake. I thought we played hard and shut them out for a three and a half quarters. It was about a six, seven-minute stretch that hurt us. We just have to overcome those things and bounce back this week."

In a fast-moving first half, the Warriors held West Lauderdale on their first possession as they Knights missed a field goal. The Warriors were able to get some first downs but couldn't come up with any points on a pair of first quarter drives.

"We would have had to play perfect to beat them," Posey said. "And we had too many mistakes on offense. We were able to get some yardage on them and move the football but then we would have a holding call or a fumble or interception that would hurt us."

West Lauderdale finally got on the board midway through the second period as the Knights went 75 yards in 11 plays as they scored on a 10-yard run by Eli Byran with 7:50 left in the second quarter. The PAT was good and West led 7-0.



Disaster struck for the Warriors when an Eli Joe pass was intercepted after being tipped by a receiver. West then went 45 yards in three plays as Ja'karius Grant scored on a 35-yard run with 5:00 left in the half. The Knights ran in the two-point conversion and West led 15-0.

After a Choctaw Central punt, West then went 50 yards in nine plays as Bryan hit Braden Luke on an eight-yard touchdown pass with 1:04 left in the half to lead 22-0.

West added a late touchdown with less than a minute to play for the final margin.

West finished the night with 415 yards of offense as the Knights ran for 362 and passed for 53. Grant had 161 yards on 16 carries.

Choctaw had 186 yards of total offense with 93 yards rushing and passing. Eli Joe was 10-of-26 passing for 93 yards while he had 55 yards rushing on 28 carries. Gerald Isom had 38 yards rushing on three carries and 44 yards receiving on four catches. Kashden Bell had four catches for 45 yards.



This week's game

The Warriors will make the short trip to Carthage this week to take on Leake Central.

The Gators are 4-6 on the season and 1-3 in division play. The Gators have wins over Leake County, Callaway, Forest and Northeast Lauderdale. They have losses to Louisville, Kosciusko, West Lauderdale, Velma Jackson, Philadelphia and Newton County.

"If we can win, we are in third place and that's huge for our program," Posey said. "It's to a point now, are we going to see this thing out to the end. I know the coaching staff is. This is a big thing for our school and our community. We need the support on Friday night and take a big crowd to Leake Central. We need to go down there and not make mistake and do what do."