Some things aren’t supposed to happen.
Things like having twice as many return yards as yards from scrimmage or gaining as many first downs as takeaways.
Southwest Mississippi Community College accomplished both of those feats on Thursday night, but with the way the Bears played on Thursday they were definitely supposed to beat Pearl River Community College, and they did 24-17.
“We just beat somebody,” Southwest head coach Charles Anthony said. “That’s two in a row against respectable programs and four in a row at home.”
The Pearl River coaching staff wasn’t comfortable with either of their two quarterbacks, and the quarterbacks weren’t comfortable because of the Southwest defenders.
The Bears had three big sacks on the Bobcats to go along with their six interceptions and one fumble recovery.
Two interceptions were returned for touchdowns and the fumble recovery set up a 40-yard field goal for Southwest.
“We pressured their quarterbacks and made them throw before they wanted to and on the run,” Anthony said.
The game-winning return came off of those exact problems.
Holding a one-point lead with 5 minutes left on second-and-goal, Lance Cuevas, Pearl River’s second quarterback of the night, had to avoid the rush and moved out of the pocket. As he rolled to his right he had another defender coming at him and all his receivers drifting to the right side of the field as well.
As he arrived near the sideline he threw the ball, not out of bounds, but right at Myrio Cotton.
With the defense either behind him or on the sidelines Cotton had an easy run down the field.
“Once I got to the 10-yard line I started relaxing,” Cotton said.
Cotton took the return 98 yards and gave Cuevas plenty of time to think about his hurried mistake.
“I was surprised he threw it,” Southwest linebacker Antoine Wilkinson said. “I thought it was going out of bounds, but he made the wrong decision.”
Wilkinson had a return of his own in the second quarter, when a tipped ball intended for a receiver running a slant fell in to his hands and he took it right down the sideline for the second touchdown of the night.
The Bears’ other points came on the opening kickoff. Roteddrick Cotton broke right through the middle for 95 yards and the only time a Bobcat put a hand on him was on the back of his shoe.
“Someone slapped the back of my shoe,” Cotton said. “So I had to take a few steps to get it back on right.”
Not that it slowed him down any. He put a move on the kicker and went down the sideline to put the Bears up 7-0.
After swapping punts, field position came back to bite the Bears. A poor punt gave the Bobcats the ball at the 24-yard line, and three plays later, Jerry Duncan tied the game with a 21-yard reception.
After that the Bears were able to maintain field position. Pearl River scored on a 51-yard field goal that came after two first downs and a fumble recovery right before halftime.
Even though the Bears managed seven first downs, Pearl River wasn’t moving the ball on Southwest much, either.
Southwest’s defenders knew how to go after the Bobcats.
“They weren’t focused,” Wilkinson said. “Once we got after them early they softened.”
Roteddrick Cotton added, “The front kept pressure on them and the throws were off.”
Cuevas went cold after entering the game in the third quarter and completing four passes on his first drive. Starter Theo Wilson wasn’t getting anything done, either, throwing three interceptions and finishing 7-of-25. Cuevas finished with three interceptions as well.
The big plays were all the Bears needed to get out of the game with a win.
“The defensive backs had five interceptions,” Roteddrick Cotton said. “We had to step it up tonight, coach was calling us out all week and we sealed it up.”
Myrio Cotton’s interception return put the finishing touches on the win, but the loss at Jones taught him the defense can come up with the game-winning play, no matter how late.
“It’s one big hope,” he said. “To count on our defense to turn it around late in the game on one play.”
After Thursday, that’s to be expected.
