The Tylertown Chiefs stayed undefeated in district play with a 51-8 trouncing of the homestanding North Pike Jaguars Friday.
The win sets Tylertown up to face the Columbia Wildcats next Friday night for the district championship. As for North Pike, the Jaguars must play a win-or-go-home game Friday night at home against rival South Pike in order to secure a playoff berth.
Tylertown looked to be on track to take the district championship. Columbia struggled Friday night to defeat a Lawrence County team that has only one win this season. Columbia defeated Lawrence County in overtime, 27-24 Friday.
Against North Pike, the Chiefs racked up 382 rushing yards.
The Chiefs weren’t scared to share the yards, either. Tylertown had 12 different players carry the ball in the game.
Tylertown quarterback Tyre’oune Holmes, who has committed to Mississippi State University, and running backs Phillip Slocum, Chris Jones, Ja’Maz Mark and Josh Lacroix all scored at least one touchdown on the ground against a normally stingy North Pike defense.
“Everything you have done, everything we have done has gotten you one step up on the ladder to where you are right now,” Tylertown coach Jason Johnson told his team.
Phillip Slocum hogged the ball with 145 yards on 17 carries, including a 29 yard touchdown.
“We wanted to make this week a week of fundamentals,” Slocum said. “We wanted to work on the little things, on blocking, on tackling right and ball fakes.”
His team responded by playing hard and keeping the Chiefs undefeated in district play, something Johnson was worried could end with an upset from the Jags.
“This has always been a notorious week for a letdown for us,” Johnson said. “The kids were on fall break this week.”
Johnson was glad to see his team come out with a win and stay healthy heading into the district matchup with Columbia.
“We just thank God for where we are and that everybody is healthy on the team,” he said.
Johnson will have LaDarrius Slocum, who he called a Division I corner, back next week after Johnson decided to hold him out of the game with the Jags because of an injury.
There was, however, one lapse in the Chiefs’ defense late in the second quarter that prevented them from getting a shutout on the Jaguars.
After going down 24-0 in the second quarter, North Pike got its act together for a 13-play, 61-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 10-yard pass from junior quarterback Austin Smith to Jalen Jackson for a touchdown.
“We played a little better tonight in the second quarter,” North Pike coach Chris Smith said. “We were outmanned. We didn’t play with any heart tonight. We played flat the whole ball game.”
Smith couldn’t explain what he saw in his team Friday that could have gone a long way toward their securing a playoff berth. Smith was pretty much at a loss for words.
“That is one thing we did talk about,” Smith said. “This game should have been a fun game for us. The pressure was on them to stay undefeated. There wasn’t any pressure on us in the game.”
Not even a big play could brighten the Jaguars’ demeanor.
“Even when we made good plays there was no excitement,” Smith added. “It was weird.”
Tylertown will travel to Columbia next Friday with the the district championship on the line.
North Pike will host South Pike in a win-and-get- in game.
Both games have a 7 p.m. kickoff.
