McComb’s football team secured a first-round home playoff game for the third straight season after a 42-6 win at Richland on Friday night to secure the No. 2 spot in Region 6-4A.
The McComb Tigers (6-4, 4-1) will host the Mendenhall Tigers (6-5, 3-2) — the No. 3 team in Region 5-4A — on Friday night to open the postseason with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
“That was the goal this week — making those guys focus on finishing up the season,” McComb head coach Jeffery Gibson said. “Even though Richland hadn’t won very many games, we had to stay focused on the task at hand to guarantee us a home playoff game.”
The Rangers finished the season 3-8 and 0-5 in district play.
McComb got things going 12 second into the first quarter Friday night with a 67-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Venchenza McCray to senior wingback Ali Henson to take a 6-0 lead. Henson had an 11-yard touchdown run with 6:55 to play in the quarter to extend the advantage to 13-0. Venchenza McCray threw an 88-yard touchdown pass to his nephew, senior wide receiver Gerkithis McCray, with 59 seconds to go in the period to put McComb ahead 20-0.
Venchenza McCray had a 60-yard touchdown run with 11:31 remaining in the second quarter and threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Gary Butler with 7:54 to play in the first half to give McComb a 34-0 lead.
“Midway in the second quarter, we pulled out all of the starters mainly,” Gibson said, adding he put one or two starters in the game every now and then.
McComb lost its home playoff games the past two seasons falling to Poplarville 21-20 last season and Forrest County Agricultural 28-7 in 2014.
Venchenza McCray was injured in the 2014 regular-season finale in 39-32 double overtime loss at Columbia and played sparingly in the game against Forrest County Agricultural. The McComb head coach said the starters getting rest against Richland prevented similar issues.
“It was very important because we’re healthy,” Gibson said. “We’re healthy going into the playoffs, hitting on all cylinders. I think Gerkithis went over 1,000 yards receiving tonight, and so everybody is hitting on all cylinders.”
Venchenza McCray was 4 of 6 passing for 228 yards, three touchdowns and one interception to go with three rushes for 50 yards and one touchdown.
Henson had two receptions for 73 yards, Gerkithis McCray had one reception for 88 yards, Butler had one reception for 67 yards, senior wide receiver D’Marion Jones had three receptions for 27 yards, and junior slotback Malcolm “Jet” Jones III had one reception for 18 yards.
Henson had two runs for 23 yards, Malcolm Jones had two runs for eight yards, junior running back Markevean Lee had one run for two yards, sophomore wide receiver Kepatrick Magee had one run for four yards, freshmen George Crockett and Qua’tavis Harris each had three runs for 13 yards, and senior wide receiver Quandarrius Lofton had two runs for five yards.
Butler was 4 of 7 passing for 45 yards and one 2-yard touchdown pass to D’Marion Jones.
Senior free safety Ronald Brister also had a fumble recovery.
