By By Thomas Warner/The Mississippi Press
MOSS POINT Tremaine Moore broke the all-time Moss Point receiving record and had seven catches for 158 yards in a 21-14 Class 5A playoff victory over Wayne County Friday night.
Moss Point hosts Brandon next week for the South State title in what will be its third consecutive home playoff game. Wayne County ends the season at 10-3.
Moore and Alonzo Fairley each had huge games in the rain-smitten contest with Wayne County, and Moss Point scored a pair of touchdowns early in the third quarter that proved to be the overall difference makers. The top-ranked Tigers trailed 7-6 at halftime, but registered two quick scores after the intermission to establish control.
Moss Point (12-1) was behind early when Wayne County scored in the first two minutes of the game. Wayne quarterback Marcus Powe kept through the containment and ran 90 yards on the War Eagles second play from scrimmage.
The point-after kick was good by Jonathan Sellers, but Wayne did not score again until late in the fourth quarter.
The Tiger defense had trouble keeping tabs on the option runs of Powe and Akeem Lofton, who also played under center in the contest. But as the game wore on, the big gainers were few and far between for the War Eagles.
Dandy Dozen quarterback Demarcus Bilbo was 10-of-20 passing in the first half and wound up 17-of-31 for 324 yards and two touchdowns.
The first scoring strike capped a five-play Moss Point drive to open the second half. Under a heavy Wayne rush, Bilbo threw to Moore for a 26-yard TD.
Moments later, Wayne fumbled on second down and it took Bilbo just one play to throw to Dennis Walker for another score. Both two-point conversion attempts failed, but Bilbo kicked his third field goal of the night with a minute left in the quarter to finalize the Tiger scoring.
Tradexter Hamilton led the Tiger defense all evening, finishing unofficially with nine tackles. Jason McBeath was also big on that side of the ball along with Joseph Anderson, Vontravis Kelly and others.
Powe and Lofton combined for 26 carries and 203 yards rushing. Each had a touchdown, with Lofton's coming with five minutes left in the game to cut the War Eagles' deficit to one score.
Moss Point took the ball and gained two first downs to run out the clock, benefiting greatly when Wayne jumped offsides on a fourth-and-1 play.
Moss Point's Fairley had three catches for 91 yards and the one TD and Walker also had three catches for 42 yards.