Carriere—Despite last week’s loss, Pearl River Central’s Blue Devils played with a vengeance Friday night, defeating the Slidell Tigers 15 to 7.
Although the score was low, by the second half, it was clear PRC was the better team offensively, particularly in the area of passing, where fans saw some excellent completions by Austin Champagne and Christian Roberts, as well as defensively.
The score could easily have been higher but for errors that cost the team yards and a couple of plays that would have been touchdowns.
Still, at the end of night, Coach Eric Collins said he was happy with the turnout.
“We’re thankful for what the good Lord gave us,” he said. Collins in fact called Friday night “a huge win for us,” because the Tigers are a tough team, although they’ve not notched a win yet this year.
The Tigers came close to scoring early, but a tough Blue Devil defense kept them at bay until, with 7 minutes left in the game, Tiger quarterback Wayne Griffin got a touchdown plus the extra point.
In the last half of the fourth, the Tigers lit up, but a skilled interception by Matt Spence in the end zone prevented the Tigers from gaining momentum.
Blue Devil running back Michael Tatman carried the ball for much of the evening and whether it was running 28 yards in the third quarter for what would have been a touchdown only to have the play die for a holding call, or slogging his way through a mass of Tigers early in the fourth to get a touchdown with 10:40 on the clock, Tatman and the rest of the team never slacked.
Next week Pearl River Central will go up against Stone High School, which lost to Poplarville although they’ve got a 2-2 record.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.