Winona Christian’s struggles on the football field continued on Friday night.
Canton used three second-quarter touchdowns to pull away early and took a 28-7 win over the Stars on senior night.
Winona Christian falls to 2-8 on the season and will host Delta Streets in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs on Friday night.
Winona Christian Coach Junior Graham said the Panthers had too much firepower for the Stars.
“I was proud of our kids; I thought we competed and never quit,” Graham said. “They have a special player down there who is just a sophomore. We played a solid first quarter, but he just took over in the second quarter and scored three times. They didn’t put him back in the game in the third quarter and it was a defensive slugfest. We just struggled tackling him when he got a head of steam. They are really good, and I thought they showed a lot of class. Any other year, they would be a front runner to win 3A.”
Canton scored all of its points in the first half, all in the run game.
The Panthers opened up with a 3-yard touchdown run and kicked the PAT to go up 7-0, a score that remained through the first quarter.
The Panthers scored three more touchdowns in the second quarter with runs of 26, 32 and 76 yards to lead 28-0 at the half.
Winona Christian’s only score came in the fourth quarter when Lane Beckwith scored on a 3-yard run and Reese Johnson hit the PAT for the final of 28-7.
“I thought we blocked well at times and I thought Lane Beckwith ran the ball well,” Graham said. “The majority of his yards were against their ones. I thought at times we looked like a football team up front. We just had some untimely penalties that stopped drives and turnovers that hurt. Defensively, we just had a hard time getting off the field on fourth down.”
Graham said there are some things he would have done differently this season.
“I think we have improved since day one. It doesn’t show in the record, but we have gotten better as the year has progressed. We have played a really good schedule. There are some things, in hindsight, that we would have done differently, we just didn’t know the kids well enough,” Graham said. “Lane would have touched the ball more. He has been solid for us on the back side of the schedule. He started out playing tight end, but we just didn’t know. And we moved Tucker Sykes to guard, and he did as good of a job there as anybody we have had.”
The Stars had 97 yards rushing and just 15 passing for 112 yards of total offense. Lane Beckwith led the Stars with 101 yards on 17 carries.
Canton had 285 total yards with 243 rushing and 42 passing.
This week’s game
The Stars made the Class 3A MAIS playoffs as the No.8 seed and will face a familiar foe in Delta Streets, a team they beat 56-28 on Oct. 1.
Delta won two out of its last three games, beating Riverside (13-8) and Rossville (33-20) before losing 74-0 to top-ranked Greenville Christian.
“We beat them 56-28 the first time we played them, but we had some defensive scores that you can’t count on,” Graham said. “I expect a really good football game from two teams that are really similar. They have a good running back and quarterback and can put a lot of pressure on you. The last time we played them, we were able to get some big plays that we haven’t gotten all year.”
The winner of this games will meet Greenville Christian in the second round of the playoffs.
