Petal uses explosive second-half comeback to upset rival Oak Grove, 54-37

Posted 12:08 a.m.

By JOSH MLOT
Sports Editor

HATTIESBURG — Special players shine in special games, and on Friday night Anthony Alford was glowing.

Alford led his team to a second-half comeback over No. 4 Oak Grove, scoring 35 unanswered points in the second half to sink a shell-shocked Warrior side, 54-37, take home rivalry bragging rights and send loud notice to Region 3-6A that the Panthers (3-3 overall, 2-0 Region 3-6A) are here to win.

The senior quarterback ran for 195 yards and four touchdowns and threw for 219 yards and another two scores in an impressive showing of determination and skill.

“We just stayed focused and stayed positive,” Alford said. “The whole game we said, ‘We will win this game.’

“It means a lot — it’s the Petal-Oak Grove rivalry. It’s been like that for years. And this is probably the biggest win in Petal history. We’re trying to take this program where it’s never been before.”

It was the first loss of the season for Oak Grove (5-1, 1-1).

Warrior quarterback Steven Swindle was 20-of-39 for 344 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in the losing effort. One the receiving end, Wesley Smith had five catches for 101 yards and a TD, Picasso Nelson Jr., had four receptions for 80 yards and a score and Christian Chauvin added four catches for 52 yards.

Johnathan McNair caught six balls for 98 yards and a touchdown, also picking up 35 yards on 10 carries out of the backfield.

“Fumbles, dropped passes, mistakes,” Oak Grove head coach Neville Barr said of his teams woes. “Petal made plays and we didn’t make plays. That was the difference in the game. We made mistakes and they didn’t.

“It’s a loss. It’s not the end of the world. You’ve got two choices — feel sorry for yourself or get better. And I told them, ‘I think you’re going to get better.’ We’ve lost games before and we always come back.”

If Alford was the captain of the winning ship, the Panther defense was the vessel’s rudder, shaking off a first half riddled with near misses and shutting things down after halftime. Coming out of the break, Oak Grove was forced to punt on its first three possessions before it turned the ball over on downs on the fourth drive and then turned it over on a fumble the next time out.

Trevor Williams picked the ball off twice for Petal, first in the first quarter with a 70-yard return that set up the first score of the game, and again with less than a minute in the game to seal the win.

“We challenged our kids to make plays,” Petal head coach Steve Buckley said of the tone in the halftime locker room, “and they did that. That was our challenge to our defense. We’re two scores down, we’ve got to get a stop. They moved the ball out to midfield on those first two positions, but our defense did the job there and we got the stops we needed.

“I think we just had players in the right place at the right time. I thought our defense had a heck of a second half.”

The defensive stonewall allowed the visiting Panthers to reel off 35 unanswered points, including a Terrance Payne 11-yard TD run that put Petal ahead for good, 24-23, with 4:38 left in the third quarter. Payne had 14 carries for 67 yards and two scores on the night.

Coming out of halftime Alford looked like a man on a mission. On the second play of his team’s first possession, the QB tossed a perfect pass to receiver Jesse Jackson in stride and just over a blanketing defensive back, picking up a 43-yard gain and suddenly wrangling momentum for the Panthers.

“I just went through my reads and we executed,” Alford said, “and I had good protection. The (offensive) line played a heck of a game.”

Two plays later Alford kept the ball himself, breaking two tackles near the line of scrimmage and then lowering his shoulder and running over a third Warrior before spinning away from his pursuers and scampering 43 yards down the left sideline for a magnificent touchdown that closed the gap to 23-18 and seemed to announce a seismic shift in the game.

“I just put my head down and try to get the extra yard and it opened up,” Alford said.

Three minutes later Payne gave his team the lead.

“I thought we were going to win the game because I believe in this football team,” Buckley said. “I believed in them when we were 1-3 and a lot of people wrote us off and a lot of people thought we weren’t a good football team. There was never a dout in my mind.

“I thought the kids were well-prepared, I thought we played hard. We left some plays on the field in the first half and we exeucuted in the second half. It was very simple — make some plays. We didn’t change anything.”

But it was Oak Grove that seemed to control the game going into the half, despite an early 6-0 lead for Petal on a 5-yard Alford run. With just four seconds left in the first quarter the Warriors responded to that score, getting a 1-yard plunge from Jordan Woods to go up 7-6. Woods had 16 carries for 126 yards and two touchdowns.

Petal went back on top, 12-7, after Jamarcus Revies returned the ensuing kickoff 57 yards to set up a short field and a 10-yard run to the end zone by Alford.

Less than two and a half minutes later though, Swindle swung out an easy pass to McNair on the right sideline and let his running back to the rest, slipping a tackle by a Petal defensive back and running un-harassed 53 yards to pay dirt.

The Warrior defense contributed to the effort when it forced the Panthers to punt deep in their own territory, and then dropped punter Austin Franklin in the end zone for a safety when the snap bounced away from him. The two points gave the home side a 16-12 lead.

Forty-six seconds later Woods cut left around the corner, fought off an ankle tackle and strode 34 yards over the goal line to give Oak Grove a 23-12 advantage at halftime and clear momentum. Or at least it seemed that way.

After taking the lead in the third, Petal tacked on three more points on a 25-yard field goal from Tristan Reynolds very early in the fourth before Jared Smith jumped on a loose ball after McNair was stuffed in the backfield and the ball was knocked free. Two plays later Alford added a 13-yard touchdown run to his already impressive evening resume.

Alford spent the night proving he was a complete quarterback, wreaking havoc with his legs but also playing a smart game. He avoided turnovers, drew the Oak Grove defense offside on multiple occasions with a hard snap count and making the right aerial reads.

“He’s a great quarterback,” Buckley said. “He is a quar-ter-back. A lot of people think he should be playing wide receiver or tailback, and I think he showed tonight why he’s a quarterback. Nothing he did tonight surprised me, nothing at all.”

Alford came up with more big plays through the air in the final period of play, hitting Blake Roberts (three catches, 51 yards) on a 27-yard score.

Less than half a minute later the Panthers had the ball back on a Jesse Jackson fumble recovery, and Alford took the first play from scrimmage and lofted the ball down the middle to Revies for a running, one-handed grab that the wideout took to 33 yards the house for a 47-23 lead with 6:24 left in the game.

Revies had three catches for 69 yards.

In desperation mode, Oak Grove suddenly found a way to move the ball again. Swindle completed six straight passes, all for first downs, to drive the Warriors down the field, capping off the 80-yard, minute-long drive with a 26-yard strike to Nelson Jr.

The Warriors successfully recovered the ensuing onsides kick before needing only five plays to get back to the end zone, again on a 26-yard pass, this time from Swindle to Smith.

But it was too little too late. The second half collapse had already taken place.

The going doesn’t get any easier for Oak Grove, which will travel to No. 3 Meridian (6-0) next Friday. The Wildcats were 14-6 winners over Hattiesburg this week.

Petal will try to give itself outstanding playoff positioning by continuing its Region 3-6A win streak, as it hosts Brandon (4-2), 35-6 winners over Forest Hill in Week 7.

“Region play is a big part of what we do,” Buckley said, “and it’s a huge plus to be 2-0 right now. But Brandon’s going to be a huge challenge next week.”

Full photo gallery to come…

PETAL 54
OAK GROVE 37

Score by Quarter
Petal                             6     6    12   30—54
Oak Grove                   7   16     0   14—37

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
P—Alford 5 run, (kick failed), 4:13.
OG—Woods 1 run, (Sobiesk kick), :04.
Second Quarter
P—Alford 10 run, (run failed), 9:21.
OG—McNair 53 pass from Swindle, (Sobiesk kick), 6:59.
OG—Tackle punter in end zone for safety, 5:22.
OG—Woods 34 run, (Sobiesk kick), 4:36.
Third Quarter
P—Alford 43 run, (pass failed), 7:43.
P—Payne 11 run, (pass failed), 4:38.
Fourth Quarter
P—Reynolds 25 field goal, 11:38.
P—Alford run 13, (Franklin kick), 10:42.
P—Roberts 27 pass from Alford, (kick failed), 6:47.
P—Revies 33 pass from Alford, (Franklin kick), 6:24.
OG—Nelson Jr. 26 pass from Swindle, (Nelson Jr. run), 5:24.
OG—Smith 26 pass from Swindle, (pass failed), 4:14.
P—Payne 12 run, (Reynolds kick), 1:30.

TEAM STATISTICS
P                               OG
First Downs                23                     25
Rushes-Yards               44-235               30-175
Att-Comp-Int               9-14-0               20-39-2
Passing Yards              219                   344
Total Plays-Yards         58-454               69-519
Fumbles                     1-0                    4-2
Punts-Avg.                  1-29.0               3-29.0
Penalties                     6-59                  11-84

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
P—Alford 24-195, Payne 14-67, Revies 3-1, Team 3-(-28).
OG—Woods 16-126, McNair 10-35, Swindle 2-12, Richardson 2-2.
Passing
P—Alford 9-of-14, 219 yds., 2 TDs.
OG—Swindle 20-of-39, 344 yds., 3 TDs, 2 Ints.
Receiving
P—Revies 3-69, Roberts 3-51, Jackson 1-46, Pollard 1-28, Payne 1-25.
OG—Smith 5-101, McNair 6-98, Nelson Jr. 4-80, Chauvin 4-52, Woods 1-13.