Yazoo County’s Panthers dominated Mooreville to the tune of 34-0 in the first round of the MHSAA playoffs to give Robert Dobbs his first career playoff win as a head coach.
Dobbs was thankful for all the people that allowed him to get his first playoff win.
“It’s a good feeling to get my first playoff win under my belt as a head coach on the first try,” Dobbs said. “I’m proud of the effort our guys gave. They came out and played hard from the first snap. I’m thankful to have really good coaches working with me this year that helped us get to this point.”
The Panthers had a very specific plan going into the game.
The plan was not overly difficult.
In fact, it was simple.
They would pound and smash them into submission.
“Going into the game, we planned to utilize our size against them,” Dobbs said. “We wanted to wear them out. We ran the ball right at them. I think we did a good job with that.”
According to Mooreville’s head football coach, Yazoo County’s plan worked to perfection.
“I don’t think they’ve ever played a team as physical as us,” Dobbs said. “Their coach told me that after the game. We lined up and played smash mouth football against them.”
The game was an interesting one in the first quarter, where they outscored Mooreville 6-0.
The Panthers began to pull away in the second quarter when they put up 14 points to take a 20-0 lead into the half.
Things took a turn for the worst for the Troopers of Mooreville in the third quarter, where the Panthers put up 14 more points to push their lead to 34-0, which proved to be the final score.
Kenneth Gainwell was as explosive as ever in the Panthers’ win, rushing for 115 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, passing for 90 yards and two touchdowns and converting two 2-point conversions.
Kory Gainwell had a big playoff debut, rushing for 107 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.
Jamari Brown hauled in three passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns on offense, and on defense, he had nine total tackles, one of which was for loss, in the dominating victory.
Sophomore linebacker Kenderian Dixon racked up 14 total tacks, two of which were for loss, in the win.
Curtis Bullock had monster game in the playoff victory with 13 total tackles, two of which were for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry.
Jay Thomas had 10 total tackles, three of which were for loss, with a half sack and two quarterback hurries.
The next game for Yazoo County will be a relatively familiar foe in Charleston, who put the Panthers out of the playoffs a season ago.
Charleston is 10-2 on the year after blitzing Belmont 52-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
According to Dobbs, the game may be a rematch of sorts, but the makeup of this year’s Charleston team is a bit different.
“Charleston is a very good ball club,” Dobbs said. “They are coached up real well. They have a lot of team speed. They’re probably not quite as big as they were last year, but they’re very quick. I guess you could call it a rematch from last year. It should be a battle.”
The game at Yazoo County on Friday night is set for 7 p.m.
