The O'Bannon Green Waves didn't complete one pass Friday night at Leflore County High School, but what they did on the ground was enough to run all over the Tigers 28-6.
Leflore County had a hard time keeping up with the speedy O'Bannon running backs, who kept ducking and dodging tackles on the way to 249 yards rushing. The Tigers carried the ball 49 times for 96 yards rushing.
The loss sets Leflore County back to 5-3 overall, 2-2 in their division. O'Bannon moves to 5-2, 2-2.
"We didn't play," said Leflore head coach Marcellus Singleton. "We got beat at the line of scrimmage."
Yet, the Tiger defense managed to hang tight and kept it close most of the game.
Early in the first quarter, O'Bannon running back Terrance Page sprinted 70 yards down field and appeared to be heading for the end zone, but two Tiger defenders who caught up with him stripped the ball. That kept the game scoreless going into the second quarter.
The Green Waves got on the board with a 16-yard run by Anthony Weeks. But on O'Bannon's next possession, the Tiger defense dug in, with LaMichael Brown hitting Page for a big loss, followed by a sack and a blocked punt.
Then, Leflore County cranked up its offense with two big pass plays, for 17 and 15 yards, from Christopher Newsome to tight end LaDerek Ross. Newsome, the quarterback, finished with 51 yards on 5 of 15 passing.
That made it 8-6 with O'Bannon on top, the score at halftime.
Both offenses were futile throughout much of the second half. Leflore County's defense started reading the O'Bannon run better, hitting the Green Wave with three sacks.
But after a four-and-out possession, the Tigers gave up dangerous field position with a short punt and a penalty for having too many players on the field. O'Bannon capitalized, breaking the scoring drought with Page running 28 yards for his team's second touchdown. Page finished the game with 96 yards on 39 carries.
At this point, things began to fall apart for the Tigers. They started making mistakes, and O'Bannon scored more.
"We just got wore down, and started not tackling," Singleton said. "We would play a spurt and then wouldn't play for six."
The first lapse for Singleton's team came in the next series when Newsome lofted the ball down field into the awaiting arms of defender Curtis Baker. The interception set up another touchdown after a series of steady runs that ended with Mario Davis bounding 6 yards into the end zone.
On the next possession, Newsome threw another interception, this one to Brodic Andrews, who didn't give the Tiger offense time to rest. Andrew darted with the ball 75 yards to finalize the score at 28-6.
O'Bannon's success was easy for head coach Mack Sampson to sum up.
"We've been pretty good all year. We just haven't been lucky," he said. "We knew if we stayed with the game plan and didn't make so many mistakes, something good was going to happen."
Next week, Leflore County plays at Riverside, which lost 14-12 to Simmons High School Friday.
Simmons is in first place at 4-0, and Riverside is in second at 3-1.
