J.Z. George High School secured its spot in the MHSAA Class 2A football playoffs with an 8-6 win over M.S. Palmer High School last Friday night in Marks.
The Jaguars (3-6 overall, 1-2 in Region 3-2A) visit Leland High School at 5 p.m. Thursday to close out the regular season. If J.Z. George can knock off the Cubs, the Jaguars would finish third in the region and play the No. 2 seed from Region 4 on Nov. 7 in the first round of the North 2A playoffs. A loss and Leland is third and J.Z. George is fourth.
“We had a really good defensive game played by our guys,” said J.Z. George coach Dustin Alford about last week’s win over Palmer. “Except for one blown coverage, we held them in check. Palmer had three chances at its 2-point conversion after the touchdown, but we held them out of the end zone, or we’d been headed to overtime.
“We’ve told our kids the playoffs already started for us. Last week was like a playoff game because we needed to win it to keep going. This week, we need to beat Leland to be the third seed.”
The Jaguars did not score an offensive touchdown, but their defense came up big. They got a safety in the first quarter for a 2-0 lead and defensive back Joshua Fleming picked off a Palmer pass and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown in the second frame for an 8-0 lead at the half. Palmer scored its touchdown in the third quarter.
“We got in the red zone several times, but once again, we shot ourselves in the foot with false starts and missing key blocks,” Alford said. “There’s still a lot of things we need to clean up moving forward.”
The Jaguars rushed for 145 yards on 43 carries as a team. Rod Wilson led the way with 104 yards on 14 carries with 37 of it coming on a fake punt in the first half. Fleming, who started at quarterback, had 24 yards on eight carries.
BJ Williams led the defense with four tackles, and Tyler Duren, Nehemiah Washington and Keldon Blackman had 3.5 tackles each.
Charleston, which has wrapped up first place in the region, takes on M.S. Palmer Thursday night. Northside is 3-1 in league play and will finish second.
