Maybe McComb High School football should come with a warning:
Fans should take their nitroglycerine tablets before entering the stadium because of all the heart-stopping finishes.
Tylertown ran the ball at will in the first half and built a 21-0 lead at halftime. But the Tigers roared back in the second half for a thrilling 25-21 victory Friday night at damp C.C. Moore Stadium in the Tigers’ home opener.
With the victory, McComb snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 3-2 overall. Tylertown dropped to 1-4 with its third straight defeat. The Chiefs have lost its four games by a combined margin of nine points.
McComb has trailed at some point in four of its five games. In three games, the Tigers’ opponent scored first.
“It’s been pretty stressful watching this,” McComb head coach Malcolm Jones said. “Our guys are like the Cardiac Kids.”
McComb senior quarterback Alex Woodall connected with sophomore receiver Daquan Smith for a 36-yard touchdown with 2:03 left that proved to be the game winner. Smith zig-zagged between two defenders at around the 20 and made his way into the end zone.
The run for two failed.
On Tylertown’s first play after the touchdown, Ja’Moz Mark connected with twin brother, Ja’Mori Mark, on a 43-yard pass to the McComb 37. But two plays later, senior MHS free safety Charvoun Ward intercepted an overthrown pass at the McComb 20 with 1:21 left to preserve the win. Woodall took three kneel-downs to run out the clock.
“I saw (the quarterback) overthrow the route and I came up and made the play when my team needed it,” Ward said of his first pick of the season.
It appeared Tylertown was in position to put the game away late. The Chiefs were deep inside McComb territory nursing a 21-19 lead with less than 4:00 to play. But McComb sophomore lineman Kaderrion Mason recovered a fumble at the MHS 24 with 3:26 left to set up Woodall’s touchdown pass.
“On that play, coach Jones told me to look at him before the play,” Woodall said. “(Jones) saw the outside linebacker was playing weak. He said once Smith got past him, to throw it.”
It took the Tigers only six plays to score after the fumble recovery. Woodall was 4 of 5 passing in the drive. Travilion Williams was on the receiving end of two 25-yard completions and another of 14 yards. The pass to Smith came after the second 25-yarder to Williams.
“It was a fly route,” Smith said. “I just saw the block coming (from Williams) and made the play. Alex put it right there.”
Jones said Smith is learning as he goes.
“Kids like Daquan, Larkin Walker and some others spent last season watching,” Jones said. “They haven’t played. We’ve got to stick with them though their youth. We all realize Daquan just needs to be consistent. ”
Tylertown head coach Jason Johnson took the loss pretty much in stride. Because of depth issues at the 3A school, he said he wasn’t all that surprised that MHS, a 4A school, found a way to rally for the win.
“Numbers got to us late in the second half,” Johnson said. “We’re not playing with many kids; we have 15 playing both ways. We’re a better football team than McComb, but we just don’t have the numbers.”
Johnson said Tylertown’s game plan was simply to milk the clock offensively and keep the ball away from Woodall.
The Chiefs went 74 yards in eight plays on the game’s opening possession to score. Ja’Mori Mark scored from 13 yards out. All right plays were rushes.
A pass for two failed after a low snap was bobbled by the holder.
Tylertown then went 76 yards in 13 plays to score on its second possession. Ja’Mori Mark bulled his way into the end zone from 2 yards out. Ja’Moz Mark ran in for the conversion and Tylertown led 14-0 with 9:04 to go before halftime.
MHS lost a fumble in Tylertown territory. The Chiefs went 59 yards in 12 plays to score. Ja’Mori raced around right end to score with 1:37 to go before halftime. Peyton Harvey’s PAT kick made it 21-0.
Running the two-minute drill, Woodall quickly drove the Tigers downfield with three completions. The third was a 35-yard pass to Williams for the score 6 seconds before halftime.
Adam Watt added the PAT.
The Tigers would not have scored if not for the quick thinking of punter Clifton Bibbs. The snap sailed through his hands, but he picked it up and ran 10 yards for a first down at midfield. The Tigers scored four plays later.
“For the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen teams do one thing (offensively) on film and do another in the game,” Jones said. “We have to adjust (defensively) on the fly. We hadn’t seen Tylertown run those powers and leads at people.”
Jones said his staff came up with a defensive solution at halftime.
“We were in adjustment mode the entire first half before we could find a cure,” Jones said. “We just made a few adjustments in the second half with our alignment on defense. It was the fix and made (the Chiefs) do some things that they didn’t want to do and that was pass the football. We wanted to get them out of that smashmouth formation.”
In the third quarter, a Bibbs interception inside Tylertown territory set up the Tigers’ second TD.
McComb took over at the THS 22. It took the Tigers seven plays to score. Woodall scored from 1 yard out with 4:18 left in the third. The PAT kick failed.
Then Smith’s 23-yard return of a Jenkins Lacroix punt to Tylertown’s 15 had the Tigers in business again. Senior running back Aquindus Henson scored from 2 yards out on the third play of the series. The pass for two was dropped, but McComb was within 21-19 with 10:59 to go.
Woodall was sacked four times. Takodee Peters, Lacroix and Ja’Mori Mark had sacks. Ojavious Magee and Joe Geese combined for another.
McComb is idle next Friday and returns to action on Oct. 4 hosting Region 7-4A neighbor South Pike. The Eagles are 1-3 overall after losing 28-22 Friday at Franklin County.
Tylertown visits 4A Columbia and ex-Tylertown coach Walter Denton next Friday. Denton spent 21 years as Chiefs’ head coach and is in his second year at Columbia.
“(Columbia) is just another game,” coach Jason Johnson said. “When we start playing 3A folks, we’ll be all right,” Johnson said. “We might be the best 1-4 team in the state of Mississippi.”
