The Union Yellowjackets fell behind early and dropped a 28-12 decision to Philadelphia on Friday to end the regular season.
With the loss, Union falls to 6-4 on the season and will now travel to Taylorsville (10-1) in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.
Union coach Brad Breland said he team played much better than they did in last week’s loss to Lake and had high praise for the Tornadoes.
“Philadelphia is really good,” Breland said. “We couldn’t get anything going in the first half. We played really hard, we just couldn’t get anything going in the first half. We played really hard but our defense stayed on the field too much in the first half. I was pleased with the effort. That’s the hardest we have played since the Newton County game. If we had played with that kind of effort all year, we would probably be 8-2 or 9-1. I just hope we can do that again on Friday night.”
The Tornadoes dominated the first half as they led 21-0 at the break. The first score was a 79-yard pass from Asher Morgan to Kadarius Calloway. The last two scores were touchdown runs of 7 and 1 yards by Trey Crockett.
Philadelphia went up 28-0 when Crockett scored his third touchdown of the game with 6 minutes left in the game.
Union made the score respectable with a pair of scores as Colby Ferguson hit Jamarian Harmon on a 3-yard touchdown pass. Henry Thornton missed the PAT and Philly led 28-6 with 1:57 left in the third.
Union added a late score as Ferguson hit Markus Jones on a 24-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed for the final margin.
Philadelphia had 385 yard of offense with 207 passing and 178 rushing. Union had 145 yards of total offense with 88 passing and 57 passing. Ferguson was 7-of-15 passing for 50 yards with two TDs while Kenyon Clay was 3-of-10 for 38 yards. Jaylon Buckley led the rushing attack with 54 yards on 18 carries.
Asher Morgan led Philly’s offense with 207 yards passing on 15-of-21 attempts while rushing for 73 yards on 10 carries. Kadarius Calloway had two catches for 105 yards while Breon Jordan had 56 yards on eight catches.
Cameron Jackson and Carlos Hickman each had seven tackles apiece to lead the Yellowjackets on defense. Peyton Posey had six tackles while Robert Craft had 3.5 tackles and Tristan Wallace had three tackles.
This week’s game
The Yellowjackets will enter the Class 2A playoffs after losing three straight games and be the No. 4 seed.
Their reward for making the playoffs is a trip to Taylorsville to take on the Tartars, who are 10-1 on the season. The Tartars opened the season with five straight wins over Scott Central (32-12), Raleigh (36-8), Jefferson Davis County (46-14), Seminary (40-6) and Collins (35-0). After a 28-0 loss to Jackson Prep, the Tartars have reeled off five straight wins, hammering Bay Springs (42-6), Heidelberg (48-6), Enterprise (55-18), Puckett (47-0) and Mize (41-6).
“They are really good,” Breland said “I know the quarterback gets all the ink but they have good players all over the field. They are really good on defense. They pose a lot of problems. They are tough and physical on defense. But I feel like we are capable of going down there and winning and that’s what we are planning on doing.”
The Tartars average 462 yards a game on offense with 285 passing and 177 rushing. Quarterback Ty Keyes has thrown for 2,996 yards on 155-of-222 passing with 35 TDs. Keyes 2,996 yards gives the junior 11,294 yards passing for his career, just 1,265 yards short of Mississippi’s all-time yardage leader Dylan Favre of St. Stanislaus, who finished with 12,559 for his career.
