For the first 14 minutes of Friday night’s game, there was little Natchez High School did wrong.

Over the next 34 minutes, however, Laurel High School did everything right.
The Tornadoes reeled off the final 62 points to swirl past the Bulldogs 69-21 in Region 3-5A action.

“We have to learn to put four quarters together,” Natchez coach Roy Rigsby said. “We started out with the right kind of intensity, mentality, and we came out focused. We have to learn to fight the negative plays. We’re learning, and we’re going to learn.”
At home for the first time since its season opener in mid-August, Natchez charged out of the gates to build a 21-7 lead.

The Bulldogs (1-5, 0-2) received a pair of short-yardage scoring runs from Tydarius Terrell, and safety Shavoke Herrington put his squad ahead by 14 with a 96-yard interception return. Terrell’s second scoring run, a 5-yard dash, came on a fake field goal in which the senior running back dashed around the left end for the score.

But it was all downhill from Laurel scored on seven of its next eight possessions to breeze to the win.

“We didn’t have our focus early on,” Laurel coach Todd Breland said. “And Natchez did some things that worked, and hats off to them for getting to a fast start.”

The Tornadoes (5-1, 2-0) were led by its quarterback and Ole Miss commit Tyquan Ulmer, who tallied 281 total yards and was responsible for four touchdowns.

“He is electric,” Breland said of his signal-caller. “He’s able to make plays when they are not there, and he’s an exciting football player, an exciting young man, and we’re proud he’s on our team.”

Ulmer’s favorite target was 6-foot-3 receiver Dontario Drummond, who hauled in a pair of touchdown strikes, including a 22-yard score in the second quarter that tied the game 21-21.

Laurel outgained Natchez for the game 449 yards to 96.

“We have talent in certain places, but we have to improve in the back end defensively,” Rigsby said. “We have to learn how to stop the deep ball; that’s one of the weaknesses we have, and we have to strengthen the weakness.”

Laurel has now won four games in a row and will attempt to make it five in a row next week when it hosts Wingfield High School.

“It’s never as good as you think, and it’s never as bad as you think,” Breland said. “We’ll watch the film this weekend and get the corrections made and get ready for another one.”

Natchez will attempt to bounce back next week when it travels to South Jones High School.

“Breland told me that you have to keep fighting, and that you can’t build it in a day,” Rigsby said of the 2014-15 MAC Coach of the Year. “It’s going to take time. He understands the vision we have here and what we’re going to do. It starts from the weight room to how we coach, adjusting the schemes to the players we have. I think we’ve done a good job of that. But we have to be consistent and continue throughout.”