Big plays send Ridgeland past LaFayette

The LaFayette Ramblers came into Friday’s Walker County Civil War with neighboring Ridgeland with a plan to run the ball, move the chains and control the clock.

And for vast majority of the game, that’s exactly what they did.

LaFayette had a nearly 2-to-1 edge in time of possession, holding the ball for 31:35 compared to just 16:25 for Ridgeland, and they ran 48 offensive plays while limiting the Panthers to just 32 offensive touches.

Unfortunately for the Orange-and-Black, they left Jack King Stadium without a single point to show for their efforts.

Ridgeland, on the other hand, scored on seven of their nine possessions, racked up over 400 yards on the ground and stayed unbeaten on the season with a 48-0 win over the Ramblers.

The Panthers, who came into the game averaging over 380 rushing yards a game, bettered that with a 425-yard night and did so on just 30 carries. Four different players accounted for six rushing touchdowns, while quarterback Ivy Boehm was 2 of 4 passing for 71 yards and one score.

It was another huge night for senior triple threat Grayson Moore, who touched the ball just five times, but torched the Ramblers for 263 all-purpose yards.

His three carries went for 140 yards, including runs of 20 and 44 yards and a 76yard TD in the second quarter. He had a 59yard catch-and-run for a TD on the Panthers’ second play of the third quarter and later ran back a punt 64 yards to set up a 14-yard TD run by senior Skye Wilson late in the third.

Not to be outdone was junior Markeith “Butter” Montgomery, who had five carries for 122 yards. He went 41 yards for a touchdown on Ridgeland’s second play of the night, added a 13-yard TD with 32 seconds left in the first quarter and had a 51yard scoring scamper in the third.

Jalyn Shelton, Ridgeland’s leading rusher coming into the game, had 41 yards on a team-high eight carries.

“It’s just tough with those three running backs to know who to really key on,” Ridgeland head coach Wesley Tankersley said. “I think (LaFayette) was probably trying to key on Jalyn a little bit, so we had a lot of plays outside with Butter and Grayson.”

Ridgeland’s quick strike offense scored in 41 seconds or less in three of their first six scoring drives and those six drives combined took up just 7:17. Their last drive, played with a running clock in the fourth quarter, chewed up the final 7:15 and ended with a 6-yard Ryan Frost TD on the game’s final play.

Meanwhile, LaFayette methodically marched the ball into the Ridgeland red zone on three separate occasions, but came up empty all three times.

Down 14-0 after one quarter, the Ramblers took over five minutes off the clock and moved the ball to the Ridgeland 17, but that drive would end with Panther defensive back C.J. Shackleford batting down a fourth-down pass in the end zone.

Following Moore’s long TD run, LaFayette took possession at their own 20 with 5:13 left in the half and proceeded to pick up four first downs. But a false start penalty on firstand-goal at the 6 was compounded by a 15yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on third down and LaFayette ended up missing a 35-yard field goal wide left on the final play of the half.

Then in the second half, following Wilson’s touchdown, the Ramblers countered by driving from their own 32 to the Ridgeland 15. But their third trip inside the 20 would again be all for naught as the Panthers forced a fumble and took over their own 6 with 7:15 to go.

Ridgeland’s backups then ended the game on a final 10-play scoring drive with Frost crashing across the goal line as time expired.

“We played a little sloppier at times than we wanted to,” Tankersley said. “We had trouble getting some stops in the first half and we had some penalties that gave (LaFayette) some thirdand-short situations. Then once we got up 210, I kind of felt like our defense hit a little bit of a lull and we weren’t as aggressive on that side.

“But once LaFayette started getting close (to scoring), we stiffened up again and held them out of the end zone. We focused on that at halftime and I thought our defense played a lot better in the third quarter.”

Eight different LaFayette backs combined for 179 yards on 46 carries, but none broke the 50-yard mark. Colton Lane had a team-best 45 yards on 11 carries and Bryson Smith added 35 yards on six attempts. Quarterback Logan Teasley completed 2 of 6 passes, both to KaDarrin Ramsey.

Ramsey had an interception for LaFayette, while A’zavier Blackwell picked off a pass for Ridgeland. T.J. Dixon also had a fumble recovery for the Ramblers.

The Panthers were also flagged nine times for 105 yards, with four of the 15-yard variety.

“I definitely wasn’t happy about the penalty situation,” Tankersley added. “It’s a rivalry game and we allowed our emotions to get the better of us a few times. We’ve got another rivalry game next week so we can’t let our emotions affect the team.”

Ridgeland (5-0, 2-0) will host Heritage (5-2, 2-1) on Oct. 14, while LaFayette (2-5, 0-3) will have this week off before they play at Heritage next Friday night.