PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia High School football team left a lot of points on the field in the first half. That was not the case over the last 24 minutes of the game as the Tornadoes, now 6-3 overall and 2-0 in Region 4-2A play, scored five touchdowns in the second half to take a 42-7 win over visiting Union on Thursday night.
Philly needed the win to keep track with Scott Central in the region race, while Union was hoping to finish at least second in the league if they could beat the Tornadoes. With the loss UHS is now 5-4 overall and 1-2 in league play with a key region home game against Newton next week. Philadelphia hopes to move to 3-0 in the region next week with a win over Lake, setting up a showdown for the title with Scott Central at home on Oct. 26.
Junior playmaker Lideatrick Griffin broke long touchdown runs of 58 and 51 yards and also caught a 37-yard scoring pass from Asher Morgan. Griffin finished the night with 147 rushing yards on eight carries and three receptions for 91 more yards. Morgan hit on 6-of-11 passes for 148 yards and had two sure touchdown passes dropped.
Caption: Union's Jamarion Harmon (3) runs to the outside to pick up a Yellowjackets first down. (Jason Dyess|Fourth and Goal Photography)
Philly, which led 7-0 at the end of the first half thanks to Griffin's first scoring run, had several other opportunities to score but turnovers and a missed field goal kept the Tornadoes from cashing in.
While his Yellowjackets fought hard in the first half, veteran Union Head Coach Brad Breland was not pleased with is team's effort over the last two quarters.
“We never got anything going on offense," Breland said. “That was the worst game our offensive line has played in awhile. Give credit to Philadelphia, they put us under a lot of pressure, but we did a lot of stuff that was uncharacteristic of us tonight.”
Caption: Union High School Coach Brad Breland visits with Mississippi State's Associate Head Coach Mark Hudspeth and Mississippi State Head Coach Joe Moorhead prior to Thursday night's game. (Jason Dyess|Fourth & Goal Photography)
The Yellowjackets were playing without starting quarterback Colby Ferguson, forcing freshman Kenyon Clay into service.
“It did hurt us from a depth standpoint,” Breland said. “Kenyon is a freshman and that’s a lot to ask from a freshman. He will be a really good player at some point but it’s hard against a team like Philadelphia. But we aren’t far off at all. I know the score got away from us in the fourth but our guys fought hard. I didn’t think they were 35 points better than us.”
Overall Philadelphia put together 478 yards of total offense, while Union was held to 161. Freshman quarterback Kenyon Clay was credited with most of that yardage for Union, rushing for 92 yards on 22 carries and completing five passes for 52 yards, including a 29-yard scoring strike to Jamarion Harmon to cut the Philly lead to 14-6 with 6:13 to play in the third quarter. The Tornadoes first two touchdowns can on Griffin's long runs.
Philadelphia came back to score on a 4-yard run by Deiondre Fox with 30 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 21-6 after Connor Long knocked through the third of his six extra points on the night.
Caption: Union's Kenyon Clay (8) tackles Philadelphia's Ladeatrick Griffin (5) in Thursday's game. (Jason Dyess|Fourth & Goal Photography)
Philly then blew the game open with 21 fourth-quarter points. The first touchdown of the final quarter was Griffin's touchdown reception, followed by a 59-yard scoring run by Raedarius Triplett — who had 107 rushing yards on 10 carries. The final score came with 50 seconds left to play when Dedrick McClendon scooped up a fumble and raced 26 yards for the score.
Union had 193 yards of total offense with 50 passing and 143 rushing. Clay was 5-of-14 passing for 50 yards and a TD while he rushed for 102 yards on 23 carries. Jaylon Buckley also had 38 yards rushing on 10 carries. Jamarian Harmon had one catch for 29 yards and a TD.
Peyton Posey and William Hughlett each had five tackles while Clay had four stops. Robert Craft and Markus Jones each had 2.5 tackles apiece while Jaheim Gill and Raylon Nettles each had two stops apiece.
Caption: William Hughlett (17) returns a kickoff return for the Yellowjackets. (Jason Dyess|Fourth & Goal Photography)
