Winona High School’s 2024 team is going through its growing pains.
After going 15-0 and winning a state 3A championship in 2023, the Tigers stand at 2-2 overall after last week’s 35-21 loss to Choctaw County in a contest played in Ackerman.
“It is what it is,” said Winona coach Joey Tompkins. “We didn’t have explosive plays, and they are a very good team. I do feel like we played better against them than we did against Kosciusko the week before. They (Choctaw) are probably the best team in the North half, and East Webster is a close second.
“I do think we got better last week, but we are still having growing pains. We are a young team learning on the fly against some tough competition. I told our kids after the game that in 2017 we were in the same situation, and we went on to play in the state championship game. We had an explosive offense last year. We could hit teams with big plays. We just need to figure out a way to have those big plays with this group.”
Choctaw County held a 13-7 lead after the first quarter. The Chargers outscored the Tigers 22-14 in the second frame to lead 35-21 at the half. Neither team scored in the second half.
“They went up 19-7 in the second quarter and forced us to punt on our next series,” Tompkins said. “We went with a fake and ran the ball inside their 5-yard line. We scored to make it 19-14, and then we got another touchdown to go up 21-19. They went up 27-21 and we had a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff, so they did an onside kick and recovered the ball. They went on to score after that.
“We didn’t do much in the second half. We had a couple of turnovers in the red zone We have to win the turnover battle against these good teams. No team can win turning the ball over.”
Choctaw County (3-1) led 13-0 in the first quarter as the Chargers scored on a 48-yard pass play and a 10-yard run. The Tigers responded with a 10-yard touchdown run from running back Zaishun Nash. Hammond Austin’s PAT made it 13-7 after one.
The Chargers got a 1-yard TD run to start the second period. Winona got back-to-back scoring runs of one and five yards from quarterback Landon Crawford and two extra points from Austin to take a 21-19 lead. However, Choctaw County scored on a 25-yard pass play and a 1-yard run. They also had two 2-point conversions to build their 14-point cushion headed to halftime.
Choctaw County finished with 327 total yards to Winona’s 240. The Tigers had 165 yards rushing and 75 passing. Crawford was 11-of-20 passing. Latavis Small had one catch for 42 yards, and Troylando Eden had seven receptions for 23 yards. Nash had 49 yards on 17 carries, and Crawford had 39 yards on 15 totes. A’jerrian Garrett had 66 yards on one carry on the fake punt.
Tommarion Brown led the Winona defense with five solo tackles, nine assists and an interception. Jakorrius Harvey had three solos and six assists, and linebacker Tyler Lockhart, who committed to Mississippi State University last week, finished with three solos and three assists.
Tez Davis had two solos and five assists, and Garrett assisted on 10 tackles. D.J. Forrest had three solos and two assists. He also had a sack. Zaire Woods assisted on five stops, and Tig Oliver had an interception.
This week’s game
The Tigers return home this week to battle the Class 4A Senatobia High Warriors at 7 p.m. Friday at Tiger Stadium.
Senatobia is 3-2 overall after starting the season with losses to Calhoun City and Memphis Central.
“They have a real good team, and they have just about everybody back from last season,” said Tompkins. “We had some big plays to beat them last year after going through the motions early in the game. We have a big challenge ahead of us.”
