By Robbie Robertson
The Choctaw Plaindealer
French Camp football coach Nathan Wright was afraid East Rankin Academy was going to line up and run the ball right at his undersized defense.
He got exactly what he feared the most.
The Patriots ran for 295 yards and got 214 from senior running back Brandon Loper to take a 46-21 win over the Panthers.
French Camp falls to 0-7 on the season and will begin district play this week against Leflore County.
Wright said despite the final score, he saw improvement from his team this week.
“I thought we did a lot better,” Wright said. “Our starting running back was able to play and that helped a lot. We blocked better and had a lot of opportunities. We got down early 14-0 and fought back the rest of the game. We had opportunities but couldn’t take advantage of them. There were lots of positives. But we shot ourselves in the foot a lot. We just can’t stop anybody who lines up and runs right at us and that’s what East Rankin did. But I felt like our effort was there and a lot better.”
East Rankin got the ball to start the game and scored on a 49-yard run to go up 7-0 with 10:02 left in the first. The Patriots got another score when they recovered a French Camp fumble in the end zone to go up 14-0 with 7:42 left in the first.
But the Panthers settled down and drove down the field and scored on a 10-yard run by Ryder Henderson with 4:22 left in the first. Drew Degroot hit the PAT and French Camp trailed 14-7.
East Rankin answered quickly with a 61-yard touchdown pass with 4:05 left in the first quarter to take a 20-7 lead.
East Rankin continued to extend the lead in the second quarter with a 6-yard run and a 20-yard run to lead 34-7 at the half.
“We just had too many negative plays that stopped drives,” Wright said. “We gave them the early lead and they were just able to pound it at us. We just don’t have the personnel to come back from those mess ups. We had some drive killers, snapped it over the quarterback’s head and things like that. At times, we did a good job on offense but didn’t do it consistently. I thought we gave great effort and that’s all we can ask of them. We just have to limit our mistakes this week.”
French Camp saw some good things in the third quarter after a lengthy halftime. They scored on an 18-yard run by Henderson and Degroot hit the PAT to cut the lead to 34-14.
But East Rankin immediately answered with a 50-yard run with 1:58 left in the this to extend the lead back to 40-14.
French Camp added a score in the fourth as Robert Bentley hit Ayden Watkins on a 29-yard touchdown pass with 10:38 left in the game. Degroot hit the PAT to cut the margin to 40-21.
East Rankin added a final score on a 25-yard run with 4:06 left in the game for the final margin of 46-21.
The Panthers had their best offensive night of the season with 250 yards rushing and 96 passing for 346 yards of total offense. Henderson had 134 yards on 20 carries with two TDs. Bentley had 63 yards rushing on 10 carries while Rhodes Develin had 24 yards rushing on three carries. Hayden Scott had 20 yards on two carries.
Bentley was 6-of-11 passing for 92 yards with one TD and one interception. Ayden Watkins had three caches for 48 yards and one TD.
On defense, Henderson led the Panthers with 13 tackles while Will Surrette had 10 tackles. Max McCoy had eight tackles and a tackle for loss while Josiah Skidmore had five tackles. Donald, Scott and Rob Eaton each had three tackles.
This week’s game
The Panthers will be at home this week as they open district play against Leflore County.
The Tigers are 4-3 on the season with wins over Amanda Elzy (18-6), South Delta (42-0), Coahoma County (22-12) and Humphreys County (28-15). They have losses to Simmons (34-6), North Side (24-0) and Greenwood (27-0).
“We feel like we made a big stride forward last week and want to make another one this week,” Wright said. “Hopefully we can build on what we did last week and continue to improve on that. The good thing is everybody is even in the district right now. Leflore will definitely be the most athletic team we have seen all year. They may not be the best but they will be the most athletic.”
