The Kemper County Wildcats flexed their offensive muscles on Friday night against the
homestanding Noxapater Tigers.
The Wildcats rolled up 504 yards of total offense and cruised to a 46-8 win over Noxapater on
Friday night.
The Tigers fall to 1-1 on the season and will host East Webster on Friday night.
Coach Caleb Kelly said the Wildcats will be one of the best teams his squad will see this season.
“First off, Kemper is a really good football team,” Kelly said. “They are really talented and have
a lot of playmakers. I thought we started off okay and competed with them. We got behind the
chains and you can’t do that against good teams. They got us on some busted coverages and
were able to take advantage of that. My hats off to them, they have some exceptional talent
and will be a test for anyone in 3A.”
The two teams traded punts to open the game but that was the only time the Tigers slowed the
Wildcats down.
Kemper scored on a 7-yard run and a 17-yard pass and led 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Wildcats continued to pour it on in the second quarter. After recording a safety to go up
15-0, the Wildcats scored on a 39-yard pass to go up 22-0.
The Wildcats then scored on a 34-yard run and a 34-yard punt return to go up 34-0. But the
Wildcats weren’t done as they scored on an 8-yard run and a 15-yard run and led 46-0 at the
half.
“We were exposed on a lot of our weaknesses and we know where we need to get better at,”
Kelly said. “We will make those corrections that need to be made and move forward. Thankfully
we got out healthy and that’s really important. Kemper has some good-looking players and can
really throw the football. You need to play tougher opponents to see where you need to get
better at.”
Noxapater got the ball to start the second half and scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass from
Logan Sanborn to Jytavious Riddle, who also ran in the two-point conversion for the final score
of 46-8.
The Tigers had a even 200 yards of total offense with 100 yards rushing and 100 passing.
JyKavius Riddle led the rushing attack with 40 yards on 11 carries while Camerion Pankey had
21 yards on two carries. Davion Holmes had 14 yards rushing on four carries while Demarkus
McCully had 12 yards on four carries. Andrew Harrington also had 13 yards on two carries.
Logan Sanborn was 8-of-14 passing for 100 yards with one interception. Jytavious Riddle had
our catches for 90 yards.
On defense, T.K. Wilson led the Tigers with seven tackles while Andrew Harrington had six
tackles. A.J. Robertson had five tackles while JyKavius Riddle and Camerion Pankey had four
tackles. Ayden harrington and Davion Holmes had three tackles apiece while Vontavius Triplett,
Quen Stephens and J.Cameron Riley each had two tackles. Sanborn also had a fumble recovery
on defense.
This week’s game
The Tigers face another tall test from a 3A powerhouse as they host East Webster.
The Wolverines are 2-0 on the season. After a season-opening 35-6 win over rival Eupora, the
Wolverines beat Nanih Waiya 41-6 last week.
“They are going to be pretty salty,” Kelly said. “These are two of the best teams that we will
play the year. They really check your oil and you get to see how good you are or where your
deficiencies are at. It’s either rise to the occasion or don’t. We are wanting our kids to rise to
that occasion. That’s why we play a little bit of a tougher schedule is to pan out any issues that
we are going to be dealing with before we get to district play.”
Last year, East Webster won 47-0 and went 10-3 before losing to eventual 3A champion
Winona in the playoffs.
