After a season full of cancelations, postponements, and uncertainty, there was one goal on The Reservation Friday night: win.
A win meant South Jones would not only make the playoffs for the first time since 2017 but potentially host their first home playoff game since the 2004 season where they hosted Brookhaven in round two of the playoffs and host their first opening-round playoff game in 28 years.
They delivered by defeating Natchez 31-30 on the back of five forced turnovers and 24 first-half points.
“We knew all week coming into the game that it would be a slugfest,” said South Jones head coach Todd Breland. “The second half, Natchez found something in their run game to control the line of scrimmage. We had the opportunity on offense on the last scoring drive and the kids made the plays.”
While the final scoring drive was important, just as important was the opening half of football as the Braves defense forced three turnovers that resulted in 17 points from those turnovers.
“The defense was opportunistic. We talked about that all week. Making the plays when we need to,” said Breland.
Jakobe Clark came up with the first turnover for the Braves, intercepting an errant Natchez throw that resulted in a Matt Smith field goal to put the Braves up 3-0 in the first quarter.
South Jones again forced a turnover with just over 60 seconds remaining in the first quarter, jumping on a loose ball at the Natchez 41. The Braves struck quickly, as they found the endzone in the opening seconds of the second quarter when sophomore Luke Griffin found BJ Hawthorne for the first offensive touchdown of the game. Smith booted the PAT to take a 10-0 lead.
The momentum kept up when Natchez fumbled the ensuing kick return, giving it right back to the Braves who only needed two plays to score to go up 17-0 when Ricshawn Fair found the endzone from two yards out.
Natchez ended the scoring run with a 10-yard touchdown run of their own to close the gap 24-8, however, South Jones responded as Omarion Rogers found his way to the endzone from 32-yards out.
On the final play of the first half, Natchez drew within 10 as Mike Williams caught a last-ditch pass and crossed from the left hash to the right hash of the field, finding the endzone. The two-point try was no good, bringing the score to 24-14.
Natchez came out furious in the third quarter, controlling the line of scrimmage and clock, while Minor found the endzone twice on runs of 31 and 10 yards to give Natchez a 30-24 lead.
“We knew Natchez would not go away, not with any kind of lead we had. I thought their coaches did an outstanding job making adjustments for the second half. I didn’t know if we were even going to get the football back very much, but when we did we made the plays that we had to,” explained Breland.
With Natchez desperately attempting to run out the clock, the braves defense stepped up, forcing a turnover on downs to give South Jones a chance on offense to score. Griffin and the Braves offense worked their way down the field, scoring with 2:54 left when Rogers took it to the house from 10-yards out and Smith booting the PAT through to give South Jones a 31-30 lead.
Natchez worked their way into South Jones territory, but their third fumble and fifth turnover of the night was most costly, giving South Jones the chance to drain the clock and claim the 31-30 victory.
“Omarion went in at running back for us, and he is just a ninth-grader. He is going to make a lot of plays for South Jones football in his career here. He gave us that little burst we needed. He’s a different running back than Tegarrius [Roberts]. Tegarrius had a good game tonight too. It may not show up in the statistics, but what he was able to do between the tackles was big. The bottom line is kids made plays,” said Breland about his running backs.
“It is so exciting [making the playoffs]. It is going to benefit all the sports and catapult us all. It doesn’t matter how we got here. We are here.”
What’s next
South Jones will play host to the three seed Hattiesburg Tigers next Friday night at The Reservation.
