By Robbie Robertson

The Meridian Star

PHILADELPHIA — There were no secrets about what either Philadelphia or Wilkinson County were going to do with the football on Friday night.

It was just a matter of which team would get the defensive stops.

In the end, it was the Tornadoes who used a bruising rushing attack and an opportunistic defense to take a 39-26 victory over visiting Wilkinson County on Friday night at Harpole Stadium.

With the win, the Tornadoes improve to 11-1 on the season and will face the winner of Tylertown and Velma Jackson.

For head coach Teddy Dyess, he like what he saw on from his Tornadoes, who were coming off their first loss of the season last week against Choctaw County.

“Even though they hit some big plays, I thought we got back to playing Philadelphia defense,” Dyess said. “I thought we had a lot of guys flying to the football. They hit a big play or two throwing the football, but in Mississippi high school football, you have to be able to run the football and stop the run to win championships and I thought we did that tonight.”

The Tornadoes dominated in the trenches, rushing for 403 yards out of 470 total yards. Wilkinson County had 313 yards passing but no yards rushing but also threw three interceptions. Most of the Tornadoes yardage came from Donterris Poe, who had 246 yards rushing on 33 carries.

“I don’t know what else to say about our offensive line,” Dyess said. “I thought they dominated the game and pushed them around pretty good. I thought our back ran the ball hard.”

The Tigers struck early against the Tornadoes, hitting Travion Jones on a 75-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game. The play was called back, however, but that didn’t deter the Tigers as they hit Jones again on a 72-yard pass on the next play to take a 6-0 lead with 11:33 left in the first quarter.

The Tornadoes finally put some good field position to good use as Kenshon Henderson went 25 yards on a fullback trap with 2:30 left in the first quarter. John Smith booted the PAT and Philly led 7-6.

After a quick Wilkinson County three-and-out, the Tornadoes struck quickly again with a little trickery. This time quarterback Tecoy Bingham hit Kaylon Gray on a short curl play and Gray pitched it to Poe who raced 46 yards for a touchdown with 41 seconds left in the first quarter. Smith’s PAT made it 14-6.

After forcing Wilkinson County to turn the ball over on downs, the Tornadeos struck quickly again. This time, Johnathon Edwards raced up the middle on a quarterback keeper for a 67-yard touchdown with 9:55 left in the second quarter. The PAT failed, and Philadelphia led 21-6 at the half.

“It just goes to show you that nothing is easy in the playoffs,” Dyess said. “But I thought our kids rebounded well this week and we got back to playing Philadelphia football. When you get to this point, you just have to take them one week at a time.”

The Tornadoes didn’t need much time to find the end zone in the third quarter as Poe raced in from 45 yards out with 10:43 left in the third for a 26-6 Philly lead.

The Tigers made it interesting with a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to cut the lead to 26-18 with 5:56 left in the third, but it never got any closer than eight points, as Poe scored on a 5-yard run with 8:51 left in the game and a 53-yarder with 6:24 left in the game to make the score 39-18.