ABERDEEN — There wasn’t a lot of cheering from Noxubee County in its postgame huddle Thursday night in Aberdeen.
A sloppy second half on both sides of the ball allowed the host Bulldogs to make it much more of a game than it should have been, and head coach Teddy Young laid into his players with the message of tightening up their play.
The playoffs have arrived and there is no room for missed tackles and assignments and form weak enough on routine plays that incites the summoning of the dreaded flying yellow flags.
“I think we got stale offensively in the second half,” Young said. “We missed some blocking assignments up front, defensively we didn’t play good at all. We blew too many coverages, we didn’t tackle well and we can’t do that in the playoffs, especially against good teams. You can’t have bad second halves, and that’s what we (had).”
It was a lot to sift through in a few short moments, but Young ended his talk on a high note. Despite their clumsy second-half play, the team still cruised to a regular-season closing 48-26 Region 4-3A victory on the road behind a prolific night from Jadien Taylor and Jykeim Goodwin, which earned the team the right to host a first-round playoff game next week.
“(The team is) feeling good,” Young said. It was our goal to come in here and get a playoff game at home, and we know what time it is this part of the year. It’s win or go home and we’ve been working all offseason for this moment.”
The victory huddle Thursday was mostly earned by Taylor and Goodwin, who have both become a tag-team duo in the backfield, each taking turns under center, at wide receiver and as a ball-carrier for the Tigers. Coming off a game in which he threw four touchdown passes, Taylor, a senior athlete, one-upped himself Thursday night in a showcase of raw football talent against the Bulldogs as he combined to chart five total scores: one touchdown pass, two touchdown runs, one touchdown catch and a punt return for a score.
Taylor’s touchdown throw was caught by Goodwin, who snagged it and raced 40 yards up the left sideline for the game’s first score early in the first quarter.
“I mean, I played (quarterback) my freshman year. It’s just in our genes,” said Taylor, the younger brother of former Tiger quarterback and Mississippi State freshman signal-caller Kamario Taylor. “I’m just grateful God blessed me with the talent.”
Two possessions later, Taylor kept the ball instead of handing it off to Goodwin and blazed through the Bulldogs, leaving a trail of flying grass and mud in his wake for a 3-yard touchdown run that pulled the Tigers ahead 14-0 in the second quarter.
A touchdown pass by the Bulldogs in response made it a one-score game suddenly, but their joy didn’t last long. Goodwin got into the action and fired a touchdown pass to Taylor, who made a leaping effort in the right corner of the end zone after a series of penalties backed the Tigers to the fringes of the red zone.
“It’s different,” Taylor said of him and Goodwin each throwing touchdowns to each other. “I threw him a touchdown and he turned around and threw me one. Crazy, but I like it though. I love it, actually.”
Noxubee used its momentum to good effect on defense, forcing and recovering an Aberdeen fumble on its following drive, which set up a touchdown run from Goodwin. The junior, who was the mainstay under center for the most of the early season, only needed to make a few cuts to lose the Bulldogs’ defenders during his 44-yard sprint to the end zone to give his team a 27-0 lead.
To open the third quarter, Goodwin connected with Christon Glenn in the endzone from 31 yards out to complete a try on 4th-and-11, and for a while it was the only points the team could produce. Aberdeen utilized the Tigers’ offensive stall and sudden inability to wrap up on tackles to tack on a 31-yard touchdown pass and a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter.
All of a sudden it was a 34-20 ball game.
Sensing the moment, Young dialed up a 7-play 50-yard drive that featured a heavy dose of rushing from Goodwin and Taylor, who punctuated the series with a 12-yard run to give the Tigers a little more breathing room. After Noxubee’s defense forced a three-and-out, the subsequent punt landed into the awaiting arms of Taylor, and he tight-roped the left sideline all the way back for the game’s final score.
The Tigers end their regular season 7-3 overall with a 3-1 mark in conference games for a second-place finish in the region. Now, their eyes are turned toward the sprint to Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium for the Class 3A state championship game.
“We’re super grateful that God blessed us with (a first-round home playoff game),” Taylor said. We came up here to ball, pray hard, just thank God for (his) plan and enjoy every moment.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
