The Tylertown Chiefs used their dominant running attack to their advantage Friday night, going on the road and taking down the North Pike Jaguars 38-27 in one of the most anticipated games in the state this week.
Southwest Mississippi Community College served as host of the event for the Jaguars.
“Everybody just worked real hard,” Tylertown head coach Osborne Holmes said. “They all stuck together and fought through adversity, we gave up a few big plays, but they just kept on fighting. It feels pretty good to start 2-0, but you can’t look at it like that, because you always have to stay prepared for the next game.”
North Pike won the toss and chose to kickoff to Tylertown to start the night. Tylertown started out midfield at the 50-yard line, but went 3 and out on their first possession and punted the ball allowing the Jaguars to take over at their own 35-yard line.
On the first play of North Pike’s drive, Juwan Adams threw an interception that came off of his younger brother Dylan Adams’ hands and into the possession of a Tylertown defender that returned it to North Pike’s 38-yard line.
The Jaguars forced another turnover on downs, however, and took over on their own 12 yard line, but after a series of incomplete passes at North Pike’s 40 yard line, Juwan Adams punted the ball for North Pike to the Tylertown’s 22-yard line.
Tylertown’s Aaron Jefferson went straight to work and hooked up with Keyon Jefferson for the 78-yard touchdown pass with 5:36 left to play in the first quarter, taking a 6-0 lead after missing the extra point.
Tylertown’s Jermaine Carpenter picked off Adams on North Pike’s next drive and returned it all the way to Jaguars’ 7 yard line, where he was tackled by Adams with 3:02 before the end of the first quarter.
Tylertown continued to pound the ball and Ojavious Magee ran in a 3-yard touchdown with 1:44 remaining in the first, making it 12 unanswered points to start off the game for Tylertown, 12-0 at the end of the first.
North Pike’s first score of the game came in the second quarter with 6:57 remaining, when running back Nakia Trotter ran in the goal line touchdown that was set up by a 45-yard pass from Adams to receiver Javian Jackson and a 30-yard pass to receiver Crawford Chandler. The Jaguars knocked in the extra point and made the score 12-7. Magee ran in another goal line touchdown for the Chiefs with 1:24 left in the second quarter, providing them with a 18-7 lead at halftime.
It only took North Pike’s offense just more than a minute to score their first touchdown of the second half, as Juwan Adams found Jackson for the 64-yard touchdown pass with 10:45 left in the third quarter. The touchdown cut Tylertown’s lead to 18-13.
When Tylertown got the ball back it seemed as if they had only one objective in mind, run time off the clock. They drove down field once again and Magee ran in another goal line touchdown for the Chiefs, and after succeeding on the 2-point conversion, the Chiefs went up 26-13 with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
North Pike decided to go for it on a fourth down in their own territory on the next drive but failed to gain the required yardage and gave Tylertown a short 30-yard field. The Chiefs took advantage and Dabben McGowan ran in a 16-yard touchdown for the 32-13 lead with 2:18 remaining in the third.
The Jaguars started back up at their own 30-yard line the next drive and managed to work their way down field, and on a 3rd-and-10 from Tylertown’s 45 yard line, Juwan Adams found his younger brother Dylan for the 29-yard completion to the 16 yard line. Adams went to his brother again in the back of the end zone for the 16-yard passing touchdown that narrowed North Pike’s deficit to 32-20 going into the final quarter of the game.
North Pike struck first in the fourth quarter as well, as Adams completed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jackson in the corner of the end zone, making it 32-27 after the successful extra point, and leaving room for a potential fourth-quarter comeback with 10:11 remaining.
Tylertown continued with its same attack and McGowan ran in another 10-yard touchdown with 5:20 remaining in the game, putting Tylertown up 38-27 and adding security to their lead. The two teams exchanged possessions for the final minutes of the game as the clock winded down and Tylertown came out on top.
“We gave up a few big plays and blew a couple of assignments,” North Pike head coach Chris Smith said. “We dropped several passes tonight, and we just weren’t very sharp. They made us make a lot of the mistakes we made, they’ve got a great football team and they’ll go a long way. I felt like there were times where we could have played better, but a lot of our mistakes were because of the way Tylertown played us.”
For Tylertown, Aaron Jefferson completed 7 of 10 passes for 158 passing yards and one touchdown. Johnny Wilson had four receptions for 45 yards, Keyon Jefferson had one reception for 78 yards and one touchdown, and Magee had one reception for eight yards.
Magee finished with 97 rushing yards off of 32 carries and three touchdowns. Mcgowan finished with 44 rushing yards off of eight carries with two touchdowns.
For North Pike, Juwan Adams completed 15 of 40 passes for 355 passing yards, 3 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions, and also rushed for 65 yards off of 11 carries. Jackson had seven receptions for 151 yards and two touchdowns, Dylan Adams had six receptions for 110 yards and one touchdown. Trotter rushed for 75 yards off of 12 carries and had one touchdown.
Jake Spears led the North Pike defense in tackles with 13, followed by Conner Travis with nine and Bryceon Magee and William Henderson with eight each.
North Pike plays at home against Franklin County next week, and Tylertown will go on the road once again to take on the McComb Tigers. Both games start at 7 p.m.
