By Heath Walley
If you’re a high school football coach in Mississippi, it has to be a great feeling to be heading into next week with not turkey on the mind, but with another week of practice scheduled to prepare for the Friday night following Thanksgiving.
Many coaches have been there, even more than that haven’t, and this year will be the first time Collins head coach Eric Booth will get to experience it.
Booth’s team nailed down that fact Friday night with a 22-8 road victory over the Bay Springs Bulldogs, which advanced the Tigers to the 2017 MHSAA 2A South State Championship game against Taylorsville next Friday night.
That’s a good feeling for the second-year head man.
“I have never practiced on Thanksgiving as a coach. It feels real good to know we will still be practicing next week. It’s good for me to know I’m going to sit down tonight and know we are playing the night after Thanksgiving,” he said.
The route for Collins through Bay Springs to the upcoming South State bout didn’t come without adversity. With two completely different offenses on the field, the Tigers with a potent passing attack and the Bulldogs with a grind it out ground game, the two teams battled defensively most of the night and took a scoreless game with a hoard of highlights into the half.
“I knew it was going to be a fight, but I knew once we got our kids rolling and in our hurry-up offense, it would be hard for the defense to bring kids in and take kids out,” Booth explained.
Collins finally broke the scoring drought on the first series of the third quarter when quarterback Hershey McLaurin, who threw for over 230 yards, zipped a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tavarian McCullum, his favorite target of the night. McLaurin then hit Zyrion Thompson on a 2-point conversion pass to give the Tigers an 8-0 lead with 9:34 left on the third quarter clock.
Later in the quarter, after forcing Collins to punt, the Tigers received a heavy dose of Bay Springs running backs Anson Windham and Jamarious Hosey. The hard running duo chewed up 60 yards in nine plays before Hosey finally punched in a 5-yard touchdown run. Adrian Cole then ran in a 2-point conversion to knot the game at 8 with 2:44 remaining in the third.
Collins went right back to work though. McLaurin and McCullum connected three times during a ten-play, 72-yard drive, the biggest vault being a 30-yard tipped pass that landed in McCullums paws to set the Tigers up inside the Bay Springs 10-yard line. The Tigers then pounded in a 2-yard run and another 2-point conversion to take a 16-8 lead with 11:54 left in the final quarter.
The Tigers later essentially sealed the deal when McLaurin tossed a 76-yard touchdown pass to Markel McLaurin with 8:52 left in the game.
Bay Springs followed the Tigers’ touchdown with a 34-yard pass from Cole to Jaccorio Ducksworth that ended up in the endzone at the 7:21 mark, but a penalty voided that score, and later during the drive, an incomplete pass on fourth down fell innocently to the turf to stump any true Bay Springs threat.
Now, Booth and his Tigers (12-2) will focus on Taylorsville for the South title. The Tartars (13-1) knocked off North Forrest 49-14 to reach the state semi-final round.
“I know it will be a good game. It’s going to be a party in Taylorsville,” Booth said with a laugh. “I know they run the spread and kind of the same offense we do. They do a lot of things like we do. The best team is going to win, and it will probably come down to whoever turns the ball over the least. We are going to look at the film hard, and try and pressure their young quarterback (freshman Ty Keyes). I hope our defense comes ready to play, and I feel like they will. Our main goal this year was to go to the ‘Big House’, and our guys are confident. They are ready to play.”
Kickoff between the Tigers and Tartars is slated for 7 p.m. Friday night in Taylorsville.
