The Mount Pleasant Tigers have been a team that feeds off juice – energy – all season long. Friday, the juice was overflowing. Between the energy in the crowd for Homecoming and that on the sidelines from the Tigers themselves, Mount Pleasant used that energy for four quarters and proved to be an inhospitable Homecoming host.
The Tigers broke open a close game with a 37-0 run to close things out and send the crowd home happy with a 4513 win over Nacogdoches Friday. Tiger Head Coach Joe Cluley said his team benefited from the energy in and around Sam Parker Field.
“Our home crowd was awesome,” Coach Cluley said. “The crowds here in Mount Pleasant have been awesome all year.”
After recognizing the 2022 Mount Pleasant Athletic Hall of Fame inductees – Charley Carter, Keith Fields, O.B. Goolsby, Jeremy Hampton, Montravious “Monty” James, Ernie McAnally, Serina McFarland, Shawn Onley, Corey Price and Ashley Self – and recognizing the Homecoming court – Homecoming King and Queen Cesar Flores and Gyselle Lozano and football sweethearts Jazlynn Chism, Ella Cross and Paris Beard –the two teams took the field, Mount Pleasant running through a brand new inflatable making its debut.
Both teams would gain first downs on their opening drives, but would end up punting. Nac opened the scoring on their second drive when, after runs by Quin’charves Calhoun and Jakevian Greer set things up, quarterback Isaac Jones found Jaylan Brown for a 66-yard touchdown. Denzel Hinojosa added the extra point to make it 7-0, Dragons.
The Tigers used their running game to tie things up after a 55-yard kickoff return by Xavier Hills. Braylon Jones took the Tigers near the Dragon 20, then a pass from Mason McMinn to Kyler Smith got the Tigers to the 17. McMinn then hit Dylan Bennett and a Nac personal foul penalty put the Tigers inside the 10. McMinn finished the drive with his legs, getting free for an eight-yard touchdown. Jones took the ensuing snap and pitched to Smith, who connected with a wide open Kevi Heath for the two-point conversion and the 8-7 lead.
The Tigers attempted and snagged an onside kick, but a penalty for deception/ simulation against Mount Pleasant gave Nacogdoches a short field. The Tigers were then flagged for offsides twice in a row. On the third play of the second quarter, the Dragons took the lead back when James Williams took the snap out of the Wildcat and powered in for a fouryard score. The Dragons went for two but failed, making it 13-8.
Nacogdoches forced a punt on the next drive, but the Tiger defense put the clamps on the ensuing drive, starting with a solid open field tackle on Calhoun by JaCori Turner, then a combined sack by Ryder Marshall and Trevor Broach. The Tigers took over after a punt and McMinn hit Owen Green for an eightyard gain. Jones converted a third and two with an eight-yard gain, then ran for six yards on the next play. McMinn connected with Dylan Bennett to get the Tigers to the 10 and Jones polished off the drive with a 10-yard touchdown to put the Tigers ahead, 14-13.
Mount Pleasant forced the Tigers into another three and out and McMinn used his arm to help extend the lead with completions to Smith, Bennett and a 15yard touchdown pass to Payton Chism, who hit a spin move on the Nacogdoches defender to break away. Chism’s move, which many are used to seeing on the hardwood, put a smile on the face of his father, Mount Pleasant Assistant Athletic Director and Boys’ Basketball Head Coach Joey Chism, who proudly proclaimed Payton learned the spin move from him.
Coach Cluley was slightly skeptical. “I tend to believe Payton learned that spin move from Mrs. Chism,” Coach Cluley said with a laugh.
The Tigers got another chance to put points on the board before the end of the first half, but Nacogdoches’ Brown came up with a late interception off a bobbled ball to close the half.
After an electric halftime performance from the Tiger Dolls and the Goin’ Gold Band, the Tigers maintained the energy when Kelcey Morris made an 88-yard house call on the opening kickoff to begin the second half with the Tigers leading, 27-13.
From there, it was all Mount Pleasant. On their next drive, Smith ran for 26 yards, then McMinn found Bennett for a 21-yard gain. The Tiger drive short-circuited, but Gerardo Chavez nailed a 25yard field goal to make it 30-13.
The Tiger defense forced Nacogdoches off the field on fourth down then, after a drive that ate up the remainder of the third quarter, Jones found the end zone again with a five-yard score. Smith ran the conversion in to make it 38-13.
The Tiger offense came back on the field after the Dragons fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which was stripped and recovered by JaColby Turner. Mount Pleasant closed the scoring seven plays later when Luke Hampton ran it in from four yards out and Chavez added the extra point for the 45-13 final score.
The Dragons tried to get another score on the board to end the night, but the Tiger secondary slammed the door on that when Bryson Hampton and Kedrian Barksdale broke up the Dragons lastditch effort as time expired.
McMinn went 16-24 for 159 yards, a touchdown and the hard luck interception. Jones rushed for 81 yards and two scores. Smith finished with 59 yards rushing, four catches for 37 yards, a twopoint conversion pass and a conversion run. Bennett finished with 88 yards receiving and Luke Hampton rushed for a touchdown. Chism added 25 yards receiving and a touchdown.
The Tigers took care of business against an opponent more than capable of pulling off a win, even after falling behind, a fact that filled the Mount Pleasant coaching staff with pride.
“We honestly haven’t done enough things right this year to overlook anyone,” Coach Cluley said. “For us to really get things started the right way, we had to come out and beat Nacogdoches. They’ve beaten Whitehouse, who is a really good football team that turned around and beat Hallsville (Friday). We didn’t know which version of them we’d get. We’d talked about handling adversity and handling success; Nac came out and scored first. We had that adversity, and we go down and score. They come back and score. We went back and forth, but we came out of halftime and we were ready to roll.”
Coach Cluley credited his players who returned to the football field, including Morris, Chism and Hampton – all of whom found the end zone.
“That kick return by Kelcey – who hasn’t played football since he was in seventh grade, but he trusted us coaches and came back out – that was a huge play that turned the tide. You’ve got players like Luke Hampton, Payton Chism, Xavier Hills and Kevi Heath who have all played significant roles for us who didn’t play a year ago. We knew it’d take some time to get them into the flow of football – we hoped it would happen earlier, but it felt like it clicked (Friday).”
Coach Cluley said that as well as the Tigers played on the field, the biggest factor to Friday was the juice provided not only by the home crowd, but also the players on the sideline.
“We played very hard and I felt like our sideline was as good as I’ve ever seen them,” he said. “We talked a lot about supporting our teammates and doing the right things. The sideline helped support our team time and time again.”
Coach Cluley said his defense flew to the football, ensuring as many players as possible would be “seen in the tight film.”
“That’s what we want; we want as many defenders around the ball so they can be seen in the tight film we watch during practice,” he said. “Our kids fly around. We haven’t always made the necessary adjustments on the field that we needed to, but I felt like we focused big-time on tackling. The last few weeks, we haven’t tackled well and we did a great job tackling (Friday). We did give up the big touchdown play, but we got it fixed and our kids played lights out.”
The Tigers will look to make it two in a row when they travel to Whitehouse Friday.
The Wildcats defeated Hallsville in a shootout, 56-42. Receiver DeCarlton Wilson had nine catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Josh Green went 13-17 for 210 yards and two touchdown passes and ran 21 times for 163 yards and another score. Running back Iven Lacy had 176 yards and two touchdowns and Mikevic Hall had two touchdowns on the ground.
Defensively, Julius Simms led the Wildcats with 15 tackles. Shawn Rios added nine stops and Hayden Ross had eight tackles. Ross and LaDarius Pitts both had sacks and Wilson added an interception.
Coach Cluley said his Tigers will prepare for a strong team and look forward to taking care of their own business Friday.
“It’s nothing about who we play, it’s all about us,” Coach Cluley said. “I told them after the game that we have to go into practice this week like we’re coming off a loss. Winning this one won’t matter if we lose the next three. We have to come out, be competitive, play hard and see where the chips fall.
“Whitehouse is very well-coached and they have a ton of athletes. They come out and throw the ball around and will use a lot of formations against us. We will have to stay locked in to be competitive in that game.”