Win over Milan shows Covington deserving

Both Covington and Johnston White lived up to their advanced billing.
Milan didn’t.
The unbeaten and second-ranked Chargers (Class 4A) — behind White and a defense that forced five turnovers — won a District 13AA showdown vs. No. 6 Milan (3A) 24-13 in Friday night’s headline game from Week 9.
The victory kept Coving-ton (9-0, 6-0) in a first-place tie with South Gibson, which has the same record entering Week 10.
Covington faces Ripley, and SG plays Westview to close out the regular season.
White — with nearly 1,600 yards coming into Friday’s game with Milan — rushed for 191 yards and three touchdowns vs. the Bulldogs (7-2, 4-2).
Equally as important, he dropped Milan’s Arkel Coleman for a safety to open the scoring and had a fumble recovery to seal the victory late in the contest.
The Bulldogs committed all their turnovers in succession in the second half after Coleman’s 19-yard TD in the third period had given them a 13-8 lead.
Carlos Williams had two of Covington’s three interceptions of Caleb Powell.
In other results of local interest from Week 9:
H’boldt 40, Lake Co. 26
Nic McLilly — West Tennessee’s top rusher — eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark with his third 300-yard game of the season as the Vikings raced past the Falcons.
McLilly totaled 325 yards in all, including touchdown sprints of 73 and 74 in a four-TD effort.
H’boldt will host Union City — both 6-3 overall and 4-1 in district play — for the runnerup spot in 14A and an automatic playoff berth.
Trenton 48, Halls 17
Tavarian Barnett scored touchdowns on half of his eight carries and Peabody won its first district championship in 20 years.
Trenton (6-3, 5-0) locked up the 14A title behind Barnett, who rushed for TDs on scampers of 51, 58, 18 and 13 yards in his 154-yard performance.
Braxton Baugus threw a pair of scoring passes to Tyler Gadlen covering 65 and 45 yards with Gadlen totaling 167 yards on four catches in all.
Linebacker Ty Fields led a Tide defense than surrendered just 176 yards and one score against the first-team.
Humboldt had won the two previous 14A titles and 17 straight league games dating back to 2009, but can finish no better than second this year after losing to Peabody 21-14 last week.
So. Gib. 34, Crockett 20
Down 20-14 at halftime, the fifth-ranked (Class 4A) Hornets preserved their unbeaten season by scoring 20 unanswered points and blanking CC over the final two periods.
Carlos Walden threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Airan Reed late in the third quarter to put SG in front for good before Quincy Walden and Kyle Cobb both then ran for insurance TDs in the final stanza.
Carlos Walden had 116 yards throwing and also added a rushing score, while Quincy Walden ran for 134 yards.
South Gibson can complete a perfect regular season in just its second full campaign on the varsity level by beating Westview in Week 10.
A victory would also give the Hornets at least a share of the District 13AA regular season title.
UC 37, So. Fulton 12
The Golden Tornadoes had two runing backs go over 100 yards and outscored SF 23-6 in the second half to claim the District 14A win.
Ricky Henry rushed for 140 yards, while Keylon Hyde became the school’s all-time leading rusher in totaling 104 yards for the Twisters.
SF fell to 3-7 with the loss and will now have to wait on results from across the state this week to see if it will qualify for the state playoffs.
Haywood 53, OC 14
Quarterback Bryce Young threw for 263 yards and five scores and ran for 100 yards and another TD as the Tomcats rolled up 497 yards of total offense.
OC fell to 2-7 overall. Published in The WCP 10.23.12

Print