JASPER — There was one future Southeastern Conference player on the field Friday night at Stringer, and it wasn’t Tevin Moore.
Moore sure did state his case for that in the future, however.
The junior quarterback carried it 36 times for 251 yards and two touchdowns as Stringer advanced to the Class 1A State Championship with a 21-7 win Friday over Bogue Chitto.
Moore outdueled Bogue Chitto’s Brandon Wells, who committed to Mississippi State last spring, and sent the No. 1-ranked Bobcats back to Lincoln County with their first loss of the season.
Bogue Chitto finishes the season with a school-record 13 wins, along with the programs first trip to a South State title game.
“We knew going in that’s who we were going to have to stop and we didn’t,” Bogue Chitto coach Gareth Sartin said of Moore. “Don’t take nothing away from Stringer. They came out and whooped us up front all night long.”
Moore beat Bogue Chitto with an array of runs. He used zone-reads, designed quarterback keepers and scrambles to keep the Bobcats off balance. He even threw when needed and finished 3 of 7 for 61 yards, including a long 44-yard pass in the fourth quarter to keep Bogue Chitto’s offense off the field.
Unlike last Friday against Pelahatchie, Bogue Chitto had no answer for Moore, especially in the first half when he racked up 195 yards.
In Bogue Chitto’s defense, it’s not like any team has had an answer for Moore the entire year. Moore’s 251-yard performance puts him over 2,000 yards for the season to go along with 39 touchdowns.
“He’s a tough player,” said Wells, who finished with 112 total yards. “You can’t just tackle him all the time; you gotta gang tackle him, and he ran the ball hard on us.”
Moore scored both of his touchdowns in the first half — from 2 and 6 yards out — and Stringer’s defense did the rest. The Red Devils allowed only 224 total yards while their offense racked up 399, including 338 rushing yards.
And the performance proved just how hard it is to beat a team twice in the same season. Bogue Chitto knocked off Stringer 34-28 back on Oct. 19 en route to the district championship.
The Bobcats’ lone touchdown Friday came in the first quarter when Jimmie McNulty burst up the middle for a 20-yard TD run to tie it at 7.
Although Stringer (12-2) dominated the game from start to finish, Bogue Chitto still had its chances.
After both teams traded three-and-outs to start the third quarter, the Bobcats drove down to the Red Devils’ 38-yard line before James Blackwell coughed it up on a third-down run.
Stringer embarked on a long 58-yard scoring drive capped by a Mason Avary 8-yard touchdown run and deflated the Bogue Chitto sideline.
Instead of possibly tying it, the 14-point swing dished out a blow that the Bobcats couldn’t recover from.
“The turnover kind of broke our momentum,” Sartin said. “You never know what can happen in a ball game if you get momentum and score. Obviously if we took it down and scored, it could have been a different ball game.”
With Bogue Chitto in near desperation mode, the Bobcats turned to Wells to run their offense. Wells lined up as a Wildcat quarterback and guided Bogue Chitto down to the 8-yard line before turning it over on downs.
“When you get in a big ball game like this, when you got chances to score points, you gotta score points,” Sartin said. “And we didn’t tonight.”
Bogue Chitto had one final opportunity with less than three minutes to play but fumbled on fourth down. The Bobcats finished with three turnovers a week after giving away seven in a 25-22 win over Pelahatchie.
Wells led Bogue Chitto with 75 yards rushing and Blackwell added 46 yards on 10 carries. Wide receiver Germie Martin, who entered the game with 1,042 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns, was held to one catch for eight yards. The 224 yards were Bogue Chitto’s lowest output of the season.
“We got the ball down and had chances to score two or three times and didn’t put it in the end zone,” Sartin said. “We had our chances to make plays and they made plays and we didn’t, and that’s pretty much how it is.”
Bogue Chitto figures to have a strong chance at another district title next season. The Bobcats return Jermaine and Jeremy Blackwell, two anchors on defense, and Brock Roberts at quarterback, but will lose James Blackwell, Martin, Wells and several other key contributors.
“It’s good to build off it,” Sartin said. “The kids never made it here and they’ve done something for the first time in school history, and hopefully make it back next year and make it further in the future.”
