The state title chase came to an end for Winona High School last Friday night as Amory’s Panthers claimed a 34-20 win over the visiting Tigers in a third-round game in the North 3A playoffs.
Winona ends its season at 10-2 overall with its only other loss coming to Class 6A power Zachary High School of Louisiana. The Panthers (12-1) advance to the North 3A championship game Friday against Noxubee County, which knocked off Kossuth 32-10 last week. In the South 3A title game Friday night, Raleigh will take on Hazlehurst. Raleigh beat Wesson 56-28, and Hazlehurst defeated Magee 32-14.
“My message after the game Friday was really addressed to the seniors, who were probably hurting more than anybody else,” said Winona head coach Joey Tompkins. “The other guys will get to come back next year and make a run at this again. We will get back to work in the weight room in January, and our goal will be the same as it is every year — to win our last game of the season.”
The Tigers, winners of Region 3 with a 4-0 mark, did everything right for two-and-a-half quarters against Amory. They led 20-7 early in the third period when the wheels began to fall off.
Sophomore running back Zaishun Nash broke loose for a 49-yard scoring jaunt to start the third quarter. The Tigers’ defense then forced a punt, and the offense had possession of the ball once again.
However, facing a third-and-long, junior quarterback Chase Richardson was intercepted by an Amory defender, who returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, pulling the Panthers to within 20-14. Before the quarter ended, Amory running back Charleston French ran in from eight yards out. The home team led 21-20 headed to the fourth quarter.
The same defender who had the interception in the third picked Richardson off again in the fourth and raced in from 32 yards out. Amory led 27-20. French scored his third TD of the game as he got in from two yards out later in the fourth to end the scoring.
“Our offense and defense played well for three quarters, and I felt like we had the advantage on them running the football, but we shot ourselves in the foot so many times with the turnovers and costly penalties,” said Tompkins. “We hurt ourselves by getting in so many third-and-longs (Winona was only 6-of-17 in converting third downs).
“This one really hurt because we didn’t play well as a whole. We picked a bad time to play bad. Once it started going bad, we couldn’t seem to stop it.”
Amory led 7-0 after the first quarter on a seven-yard run by French. In the second period, Winona got a 66-yard run from Nash and a nine-yard pass from Richardson to James Burt to lead 14-7 at the half.
Richardson finished 16-of-30 for 119 yards. He ran for 59 yards on 22 carries. Nash had 164 yards on 15 carries
Troylando Eden had five receptions for 36 yards, and Kam’ron Robinson had five grabs for 31 yards. Burt finished with three receptions for 30 yards, and Tristin Purnell had two catches for 20 yards.
Tyler Lockhart led the defense with five solos, nine assists and one tackle for loss. Fred Clark had five solos and seven assists, and Eric Boone had three solos, five assists, one sack and two stops for loss.
Robinson had a solo, six assists and an interception, and A’jerrian Garrett had three solos and one assist. Bobo Bays had three assists and a fumble recovery.
