2023 -
GAME 5
SAINT JAMES 49, @ Southside-Selma
48 
S S
0
30 6
12 48
September 22, 2023.
Panther Stadium. Game Conditions: Mostly
clear, low humidity Game Temperature:
80 Wind: negligible
Despite a shortage of game officials and some related missed calls
along with clock related issues in the second half, offenses ran
wild but the Trojan goal line defense stuffed four consecutive
Panther two point conversion attempts as Saint James survived a
visit to Southside-Selma and pulled out a gritty 49 - 48 Region
Victory.
SCORING SUMMARY
STJ (1) 6:00 Connor 5 pass
from
Jackson
(Huff kick) 7 - 0
STJ (1) 2:48 Connor 13 pass
from
Jackson
(Huff kick) 14 - 0
S S (2) 11:20 D. Smith 1
run
(Reese run) 14 - 8
STJ (2) 6:43 Jackson 1
run
(Huff kick) 21 - 8
S S (2) 6:26 E. Smith
54 pass from
Reese
(Moore run) 21 - 16
S S (2) 4:33 E. Smith
56 pass from
Reese
(Moore run) 21 - 24
STJ (2) 2:30 Huff 22 pass
from Jackson
(Huff kick) 28
- 24
STJ (2) 0:44 Wingard 66
interception return (Huff
kick) 35 - 24
S S (2) 0:02 Broadnax
30 pass from
Reese
(run failed) 35 - 30
S S (3) 7:02 Reese 5
run
(pass failed) 35 - 36
S S (4) 11:30 Reese 2
run
(run failed) 35 - 42
STJ (4) 7:50 Jackson 1
run
(Huff kick) 42 - 42
STJ (4) 7:21 Huff 30 pass from
Jackson
(Huff kick) 49 - 42
S S (4) 4:07 D. Smith 49
pass from
Reese
(run failed) 49 - 48
As there was no handy available replay, this game
recap will be a bit more condensed than usual.
For the fifth consecutive game, Saint James won the coin toss and
elected to receive. The Trojans embarked on a drive which
consumed exactly one half of the first quarter and culminated in a
touchdown pass from K.J. Jackson to Pruitt Connor. Jake
Huff's extra point gave Saint James a 7 - 0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Huff "pooch kicked" the ball about
25 yards down the field. The receiver muffed the ball back
toward the Trojan pursuers, in fact passing most of them.
Saint James recovered the ball inside their own territory, and
were rewarded with an immediate second possession. From
there, Saint James embarked on another scoring drive, and again it
was Connor on the receiving end of a touchdown pass from Jackson,
this one from 13 yards out. This was Jackson's 100th
touchdown pass of his stellar career as a Trojan. The extra
point gave Saint James a 14 - 0 lead and the Panthers had not run
their first offensive play.
Saint James tried another onside kick on the next play and it
appeared to work again as the ball was caught after several
bounces by a Trojan player who continued to run the ball forward
inside the Panther 40. Of course, the ball would have been
dead where it was caught, but it was determined the ball only
traveled 9 yards before touching, and Southside was awarded the
ball at the Trojan 49 after an illegal touching penalty was
called. Several plays into the second quarter, Derick Smith,
considered the Panthers' biggest threat at wide receiver, carried
the ball from the wildcat formation into the endzone from one yard
out. Southside had no place kicker per se, and attempted a
two point conversion after each of their touchdowns. On the
first one, Marquarius Reese rushed for the conversion and the lead
was cut to 14 - 8 early in the second quarter.
The Trojans drove the length of the field again after a short
kickoff and Jackson converted his own one yard touchdown run for a
score and Huff, who made all seven of his extra point attempts,
boosted the lead to 21 - 6.
After an endzone kickoff, it took only two plays for the Panthers
to score. Consecutive passes from the quarterback Reese to
Erick Smith for 26 and 54 yards were enough for Southside's second
touchdown, and a two point conversion run by Ja'quarius Moore cut
the Trojan lead to 21 - 16. The Trojan offense stalled on
the next drive, and a punt which took a friendly Panther bounce
gave them first down at their 44 yard line. On the first
play, an exact duplicate of the previous touchdown pass play was
called and was again the same result as Erick Smith raced past a
defender for a 56 yard touchdown. Moore's extra point gave
Southside its first lead at 24 - 21.
Saint James drove down the field again for a touchdown,
culminating in a great leaping catch by Huff on the end of a
Jackson pass - his 101st career touchdown pass, and the Trojans
regained the lead at 28 - 24 with over four minutes remaining
until halftime.
After starting with poor field position, the Panthers were driving
again but faced a fourth down from near midfield. An
underthrown pass was intercepted by Paxton Wingard at the Trojan
34. He had a clear field for a return before reaching the
midfield stripe and worked his way through several potential
tacklers. He avoided another tackle at the 30 yard line, and
then somehow escaped the final defenders at the 15 racing into the
endzone for a 66 yard interception return touchdown. Huff's
extra point gave Saint James some momentum with a 35 - 24 lead in
the last minute of the half.
With timeouts available, the Panthers still had plenty of time to
move down the field,
and on this particular drive a Panther pass receiver had a
reception swiped away by Braylen Corley, and he began running
the other way on what might have been another interception
return touchdown. However a whistle stopped play, and
after a lengthy discussion the swipe was apparently "missed" and
Southside was given the ball back at an absolutely arbritrary
location. With under 10 seconds remaining, Raquez
Broadnax won a "50-50" catch in the endzone for a late Southside
touchdown. The two point conversion run was stopped, but the
Panthers who would be taking the first possession of the third
quarter had set up an opportunity for back to back scoring drives
as a frenetic first half ended with Saint James nursing a 35 - 30
lead.
The Panthers indeed convert their back to back scoring drives as
they took the opening kickoff and marched down the field with
Reese calling his own number from the quarterback slot for a 5
yard touchdown run five minutes into the third quarter. The
two point conversion pass failed, but the Panthers were back on
top 36 - 35.
A Trojan punt on the next drive gave Southside a chance to "back
to back to back" on scoring drives, and they did. By now,
the game had seriously slowed in progression. As mentioned
earlier, there were only five on-field officials, and it seemed
every play had a flag or a lengthy discussion by the available
referees about issues which arose during game play. The
drive would culminate with a 2 yard touchdown run by Reese, and
this time the missed conversion run kept the game at one
possession, with Southside leading 42 - 35.
The Trojans drove down the field again and Jackson was rewarded
with a 1 yard touchdown run. Huff's extra point tied the
game at 42 all with just under 5 minutes remaining. On the
first play after the kickoff, a Southside fumble was recovered by
Saint James. Discussions had the Trojan faithful fearful
their turnover was again going to be taken away, but Saint James
was finally awarded the football at the Panther 30. A new
issue had crept into play as the 40/25 second play clock was now
non-functional and the back judge in the already shortened crew
had the added task of keeping up with the play clock. The
play clock was not needed on the first play of the drive as
Jackson tossed his 102nd career touchdown pass to Jake Huff, who
made a fine catch down low just inside the endzone with a defender
draped upon him. His extra point put Saint James back in the
lead at 49 - 42 with still over 7½ minutes to play.
The teams traded possessions before Southside drove down the field
as Derick Smith caught a 49 yard touchdown pass from Reese cutting
the lead to one. A defensive offside penalty took half of
the yardage needed for the go-ahead conversion away, but the
center of the Trojan line managed to keep Moore out of the endzone
somehow and the Trojans held on to their 49 - 48 lead which would
eventually be the final score.
Saint James tried to run out the clock but was forced to
punt. Southside was unable to convert a first down, throwing
a deep pass over everyone on fourth down, and Saint James
converted a first down on the following drive as the Panthers had
exhausted all their timeouts and somehow the Trojans came out with
a win after a game which took 3 hours and 20 minutes to
play. The Trojans, now 3 - 0 in 3A Region 3, would take a
break from region play for a week as they would host the Charles
Henderson Trojans at Carlisle Field on the upcoming Friday night.
NEAR
PRESS BOX STATISTICS - GAME FIVE
SAINT
JAMES
RUSHING
32
attempts
89 yards
2
TDs
(2.78 yards
per carry)
21
Anderson
14 / 69 yards 1
Jackson 17 / 17 yards
(2 TDs) 16
Conner
1 / 3
PASSING
13 completions 22 attempts 0 INTs 258
yards 4 TDs
1 Jackson
13 - 22 - 0 269
yards 4 TDs
RECEIVING
3
Huff
4 / 120 yards (2 TDs) 21
Anderson 3 / 55
10
Offord
1 / 41
16
Connor
3 /
36
(2 TDs) 6
Holloway 2 / 17
TOTAL
YARDS: 358
KICKS: XP 7 / 7
FG 0 / 0
2
POINT CONVERSIONS: 0 / 0
KICKOFFS: 8
(29,9,EZ,22,EZ,15,29,40)
PUNTS: 3 (27,48,48)
KO RETURNS: 6 (23,0,0fc,0f,0,0)
PUNT
RETURNS: 0
FIRST
DOWNS: 17 (7 rushing, 10 passing. 2 penalty)
THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS: 8 / 13
FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS: 2 / 2
FUMBLES: 2, lost 0
INTERCEPTION RETURNS: 1 (66 TD)
TURNOVER
MARGIN: + 2
POINTS OFF TURNOVERS: 14
ACCEPTED PENALTIES: 7 / 56
TIME
OF POSSESSION: 26:54
SOUTHSIDE
RUSHING 31 attempts
113 yards 2 TDs (3.53 yards per carry)
PASSING
16 completions 27 attempts 1 INT 364
yards 5 TDs
TOTAL
YARDS: 477
KICKS: XP 0 / 0
FG 0 / 0
2 POINT
CONVERSIONS: 3 / 7
KICKOFFS: 8
(39,28,OB,30,27,27,21,36)
PUNTS: 0
KO
RETURNS: 5 (16f,0,0,0,2)
PUNT
RETURNS: 0
FIRST
DOWNS: 23 (10 rushing, 12 passing, 1 penalty)
THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS: 5 / 11
FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS: 5 / 6
FUMBLES: 3, lost 1 (muffed kick)
POINTS OFF TURNOVERS: 0
ACCEPTED
PENALTIES: 8 / 39 yards
TIME OF
POSSESSION: 21:46
RETURN TO THE
SAINT JAMES 2023 FOOTBALL HOMEPAGE