Published: November 11, 2009 09:06 am      

FCA strikes early, late in 27-14 win

The visiting Panthers of French Camp Academy hit West Oktibbeha with some heavy punches early, but weren't able to knock out the Timberwolves until Jovon Turner broke loose for a 54-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to seal a 27-14 win.

The victory pushed FCA to 7-3 overall and gave the Panthers the No. 3 seed out of Region 3-1A for the MHSAA Class 1A playoffs that begin on Friday.

French Camp, ranked No. 12 in the state in Class 1A by the Mississippi Prep Sports Source, will be hitting the road to take on No. 6-ranked Mount Olive (6-5).

"Their record doesn't show how good they are," FCA head coach Nathan Wright said of the Pirates. "They have played a lot of good football teams but we feel like we have a chance if we will just play our game."

Mount Olive began the season 0-4, losing to the likes of Collins, Seminary, Mize and Puckett. The only other loss came 17-12 two weeks ago to Region 4-1A champion Sebastopol.

French Camp used a pair of defensive plays to take a 19-0 first-quarter lead against homestanding West Oktibbeha on Friday night.

Aro Nebk intercepted a pass that set up 17-yard touchdown pass from eighth-grader Jesse Hosket to Justin Anderson to put the winners up 6-0.

That became 12-0 when Nebk forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff that Ben Hosket recovered, leading to a 15-yard scoring pass from Jesse Hosket to Chris Nickson. Hosket connected on this third touchdown pass of the first quarter when he found Nebk for an eight-yard score. Denny Johnson's point after made it 19-0.

Hosket hit on 4-of-12 passes for 48 yards on the night, while Turner rushed for 195 yards on 20 carries and Josh Hardin had 12 carries for 77 yards and Anderson seven carries for 31 yards.

"After we got those three quick scores we knew they were going to come after us," Wright said of the Timberwolves. "They started playing better defense and they were stopping us. We messed around and fumbled and gave them a short field."

West Oktibbeha responded by hitting on a 20-yard touchdown pass and a two-point conversion to cut it to 19-8 at the half. The Timberwolves whittled it to 19-14 in the third quarter with a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown.

But Turner gave the Panthers the cushion they needed with his long touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Hardin led the FCA defense with eight tackles, while Deon Turner had six tackles and a sack and Nebk had six tackles to go with his interception.

Justin Anderson and Grady Henderson had interceptions, while Bangali Sillah recovered a fumble.