Hunter transforms into legend with 88th touchdown

Neshoba Central’s Jarquez Hunter ran into the local football history books Friday night as he scored five touchdowns while leading the Rockets past Holmes County Central 35-8 in prep football action.

Hunter now has scored 88 touchdowns during his high school career according to Neshoba Central records. He has passed Marcus Dupree’s old scoring record of 87. And he still has a lot of football left to play in his senior season.

Hunter finished the night with 226 rushing yards on 39 carries. He also completed a pass for 28 yards, giving him 248 total yards.

Hunter has his own escort. When inside the five-yard line, a special group of big linemen, Maxton Woodward, Kelbee Holmes and Zach Griffin, come in to clear the way to the end zone.

Hunter scored his first touchdown in the first quarter on a five-yard run. . Hunter Bavetta kicked the extra point, making the score 7-0. He was five-for-five on extra points

In the second quarter, Hunter set up his second touchdown by completing a 28-yard pass to Gavin White, putting the ball on the Holmes 20-yard line. The Rockets pushed the ball down to the Holmes one-yard line and Hunter carried it in. The Rockets led 14-0.

Later in the second period, Elijah Ruffin intercepted a pass for Neshoba. The Rockets pushed the ball inside the five and Hunter scored with 3:54 left, making it 21-0.

In the third quarter, quarterback Eli Anderson kept the ball and ran to five-yard line. The Rockets pushed it inside the two. Hunter carried it the rest of the way. With 5:04 left in the third quarter, the Rockets led 28-0.

Hunter scored his fifth touchdown on a seven-yard run with 9:04 left to play and the Rockets led 35-0.

In the final minutes, the Jaguars scored their only points on a 54-yard TD pass play.

Across the board, it was a dominating performance for Neshoba Central as they improved to 4-0 and 1-0 in the Region 2-5A standings. Holmes falls to 1-2 and 0-1.

The Rockets finished with 329 total yards and 16 first downs. Neshoba Central rushed for 269 yards on 52 carries while completing 4-of-9 passed for 60 yards. The Rockets were intercepted twice and lost one fumble. They had three penalties for 35 yards.

Anderson finished the night with 43 rushing yards on eight carries and completed 3-of-7 passes for 33 yards. Dagan Martin had two catches for 13 yards while Bryceton Spencer had one catch for 24 yards,

Holmes County had 201 total yards and six first downs. The Jaguars rushed for 13 yards on 16 carries while completing 10-of-18 passes for 188 yards. They were intercepted three times. The Jaguars were penalized nine times for 66 yards.

“Our offensive line answered the challenge,” Schoolar said. “Joe Frank Byrd and Zae Williams were where we wanted them to be Friday night. We challenged those two seniors to come in and lead the line and they did a great job for us.

“Holmes had a good defensive front and we answered the call. But we can’t relax. We have to get better.

“I thought we executed well on defense. Anytime you hold the other team to less than a rushing yards per attempt, that’s pretty good football,” Schoolar said. “They had 188 yards passing, but one of those was a 64-yard pass play and their touchdown was for 54 yards. That’s 118 yards on two plays.

“Our defense played well. Elijah Ruffin made a huge defensive play on the long pass and tackled the ball carrier inside the five. Then we were able to hold them out and that was big. You don’t see that stat in the paper but that was a huge tackle. Coach Shannon Ruffin and his staff preach that ‘effort, effort, effort,’ and it was.”

On defense: Ruffin finished with two tackles, one pass break-up and one interception. Brayden Reynolds had four tackles and one interception; Holmes had 10 tackles and two for a loss; Hunter had six tackles, two for a loss; Griffin had 10 tackles, two for a loss and a sack; Mathis had three tackles, one for a loss; and, Landon Case had four tackles.

Schoolar is now focusing his team on the Vicksburg Gators this week. It’s the Rockets’ first road game of the season. Vicksburg is renovating its stadium and is playing its games at Warren Central this year.

“They are a typical Vicksburg team,” Schoolar said. “They run the ball. They are switched to the double wing. They try to control the clock on you. They are big defensively will give us problems.”