Tri-County leans on run game in win over Canton Academy
Tri-County Academy continued their dominant season with a 47-7 rivalry win over Canton Academy on Friday night, moving to 6-0 on the season.
Defense and the run game was the recipe for success for the Rebels in this one. After giving up a touchdown on the opening drive of the game and going down 7-0, Tri-County went on to shut out Canton Academy for the rest of the game.
“Our defense is always lights out, we play very aggressive,” Tri-County Academy Head Coach Phillip Wasson said. “They had some guys with real speed on the outside, but I was proud of our kids and the way they stayed with them and rallied to the ball.”
As for the run game, the Rebels had three different players find the endzone on the ground, led by Hayden Hunt with four touchdowns and Rhett Gray with two on the night.
“We’re usually a more balanced team between pass and run, but the teams we have been playing the last couple of weeks are putting too many guys out in the secondary, so it’s forcing us to run the ball more,” Wasson said. “We are really just going to take what they give us on offense.”
While the Rebels started slow on their first couple of possessions on both sides of the ball, they flipped a switch through the rest of the first half, taking a 34-7 lead into halftime, and solidified that lead by adding two more scores in the second half.
It has been a dominant run this year for the defending MAIS 4A champion Rebels, as they have now only lost one game in the last two seasons to this point. Tri-County has an average margin of 36.3 points, with an average of 42 points scored per game and only giving up an average of 5.7 points per game.
“We have started off the last three weeks behind, so it’s really made us show some fight and come back and get the lead ourselves,” Wasson said. “I am proud of the way we have played so far, but we just need to learn to start the game clean I think is the key for us at this point.”
The Rebels will have every opportunity to make another run at the MAIS 4A title and will look toward their final four regular season games, including two district games against Clinton Christian Academy and Central Hinds Academy.
Even with the tough loss for Canton Academy tonight, this is a Panthers team that made a run to the MAIS 3A semifinals last year and will look to go even further this year.
Tri-County remains undefeated and will travel to take on Washington School next Friday, while Canton Academy falls to 3-3 on the season and will travel to take on Central Holmes Christian next week.