Horn Lake, Covington make state finals; Olive Branch eliminated
Horn Lake and Covington extended their seasons Friday night, while Olive Branch fell short of its goal.
Horn Lake rallied late to knock off visiting Madison Central in the MHSAA Class 6A North Half title game, 16-7; Covington needed overtime to topple Stratford, 20-14, to win in the TSSAA Class 3A semifinals; and Olive Branch (12-2) dug itself too deep of a hole in a 35-0 MHSAA Class 5A North Half setback at West Point.
The Eagles advance to meet Oak Grove in next Friday’s (7 p.m.) championship at M.M. Roberts Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. The Chargers, meanwhile, will be making a return trip to Cookeville Saturday (3 p.m.) to play Alcoa at Tennessee Tech.
Horn Lake (14-0) scored on an 80yard touchdown pass from Raydarious Jones to Octavius Williams with roughly 30 seconds left to play in regulation. The ball was initially snapped to Nakobe Dean, who made the pitch to Jones.
“(The reverse pass) was just something we put in during our meeting on Sunday,” said Horn Lake coach Brad Boyette, “because we just saw that their defensive backs really liked to come forward and make tackles, and we thought we could slip somebody by them.
“But it was a huge play, Raydarious made a great throw and Octavius made a great catch; had to make a guy miss and outrun another guy to get into the end zone. It was just unbelievable, really.”
Jones tied the game at 7 with a 9yard TD scamper with 2:33 remaining. The Eagle defense recorded a safety in the waning seconds to seal the deal.
As has been the case for the majority of the season, Covington (14-0) got some heroics from Marcus Hayes, who rushed the ball 21 times for 88 yards, but no carry was bigger than his game-winning touchdown in OT.
The Chargers actually trailed the upstart Spartans (5-9) at halftime, ALL PRE-OWNED FIREARMS CERTIFIED BY IN-STORE GUNSMITH. 7-6. Both of Covington’s touchdowns in regulation were scored by Caleb Winfrey.
Olive Branch fell victim to 85-yard and 59-yard touchdown runs to trail at the 6:38 mark of the first quarter, 14-0. The deficit doubled by halftime. The sloppy field conditions also led to the Conquistador offense to have two drives stalled after interceptions.
“With the weather the way it was, we couldn’t get anything going in the passing game,” Olive Branch coach Tyler Turner said. “And when they stacked the box like they did, that made it tough on us, because they’ve got some big dudes in the box. They just executed a lot better than we did tonight.”