The Taylorsville Tartars wrapped up their regular season schedule on Friday night with an overwhelming 59-7 victory over Clarkdale in their homecoming game. With the win, the Tartars achieved one of very few things they were unable to accomplish during last year’s state championship run: a perfect 11-0 regular season record.
Though Coach Mitch Evans preaches to his team to focus on just one game at a time, he said the group’s ultimate goal is to defend their state title. He knew if they played their best football, this result would be a possibility.
“Our ultimate goal at the start of the year was to be at Southern [Miss] playing for a championship,” said Evans. “We’re not scared to talk about that. When we showed up to workouts in June, we said that was our goal, and it will continue to be our goal every week until we hopefully reach it.”
The Tartars were nearly unstoppable on offense, scoring at will throughout the night. Freshman Cedric Beavers returned the opening kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown, and from there the home team never looked back. 11 different Tartars — two quarterbacks, four running backs and five receivers — accounted for a touchdown before the final horn sounded.
“We do have a lot of young kids who can play,” said Evans. “They don’t get to play as much as they’d like because these older kids are really good players, but I’m really excited about future of this football program — not just for the guys we have now but for the guys who are coming.”
“Overall we’re a really young football team,” said senior running back Keyon Bass, one of the 11 scorers for Taylorsville. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores who can play. We’re a very balanced team.”
Sophomore Ty Keyes our up yet another impressive showing, only needing two quarters of play to complete three touchdown passes to Jaylon Clark, Chandler Cline and Tyrese Keyes. Freshman Karson Evans stepped in for Keyes in the third quarter and led the Tartars on two more scoring drives. The second half of play ended in a flash due to an agreement to run the clock without stopping since the Tartars had a more than convincing lead.
Now that they have locked up the No. 1 seed with a 4-0 record against region opponents, the Tartars will turn their attention towards next week’s Round One matchup against the Perry Central Bulldogs. The regular season meeting between these two teams ended with a 42-0 victory for Taylorsville, who will be seeking a similar outcome as they continue to push toward their ultimate goal.
