For the fourth consecutive year the Y-Trophy, given to the winner of the annual Yazoo City-Yazoo County football game, will reside on Highway 49 as the Panthers easily handed the Indians a 34-14 defeat in the annual contest.
Thanks in large part to four Yazoo City interceptions (and one fumble), the Panthers were able to keep the Indian offense at bay for most of the rainy night.
When it was over, the Panthers added a little more water to an already wet head coach Robert Dobbs, as they doused him with a celebratory “Gatorade bath.”
“I don’t like the Gatorade bath, but anytime you beat your rival by 20 points, I’ll take it,” said Dobbs. “Much credit to Yazoo City though. They’re a much-improved team from where they were last year. And kudos to our guys. They played hard the whole game. We kinda got laxed a little bit in the third quarter, but we were able to regroup and pull out the victory.”
After both teams’ first drives stalled, Indian quarterback Tyler Taylor threw the first of his four interceptions with 3:22 remaining in the first quarter giving the Panthers excellent field position.
YCHS would cash in a few plays later on a nine yard Jarrett Jasper run that ended the first period’s scoring.
Yazoo City recorded the game’s most electrifying play of the night to open the second quarter when Tyler connected with Amarion Brown on a 67 yard touchdown pass to tie the score at six.
The Panthers, however, answered with a three yard run by Chandler Hardman and a seven yard run from Jasper with just :29 seconds left in the half to give Yazoo County a 20-6. Taylor’s second INT came just before the halftime buzzer and the Indians trailed by 14 at the break.
Both teams scored eight points in the third quarter; the Panthers on a 10-yard Hardman run and the Indians on a two-yard Comarion McBride run to push the score to 28-14 County headed into the final frame.
Yazoo City turned the ball over to the Panthers after their third interception at the 9:48 mark of the fourth quarter and Yazoo County was able to convert that into points on a T.J. Rials three-yard run that sealed the deal.
On the night, Rials completed 9-of-11 passes for 183 yards. Cameron Williams led the YCHS receivers with five receptions for 112 yards.
Jasper and Hardman led the ground attack with 55 and 52 yards respectfully.
Xzavian Gainwell led the defense with eight tackles and two interceptions.
Yazoo City’s Desmond Johnson was the game’s leading rusher with 111 yards on 16 carries. Taylor added 44 yards on eight carries and McBride had 16 yards.
Taylor completed 3-of-10 passes for 80 yards. Brown was his main target on the night, with 72 yards on two receptions.
“That loss was a tough one for us. It’s hard to beat anybody with that many turnovers. We have to do a better job of putting ourselves in more manageable third down situations,” said YHS head coach Justin Washington. “When we stayed ahead of the chains, Desmond was pretty much unstoppable.”
Both teams will be at home this Friday as Yazoo County hosts Morton and Yazoo City welcomes St. Patrick.
