A dominant rushing attack spearheaded by Winona quarterback Andarius Coffey proved too much for the Whippet defense as Winona defeated Kosciusko 53-13 Friday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Coffey ran for a season-high 288 yards and five touchdowns on 18 carries while also going 7 of 13 with 53 yards passing to send the Tigers to their 11th victory this year. The win capped an undefeated regular season for Winona.
“They’ve got a very good ball club,” Kosciusko coach Kelly Causey said. “We didn’t play very well, either, to be honest with you. I thought that we did some things that you usually do early in the year, some mistakes. They did a good job executing their game plan, and I’m sure they’ll go deep in the playoffs.”
Kosciusko’s (3-7, 2-2 Region 4-4A) opponents over the last three weeks of the regular season – Noxubee County, Louisville and Winona – have a combined record of 27-6. Causey believes the challenging late-season schedule will only help his team as it begins its playoff push this week at Corinth.
“The teams you face from here on out are going to be that caliber of teams,” Causey said of Kosciusko's recent opponents. “I don’t think we’ll face the caliber of Louisville- or Noxubee-type kids until you go later into the playoffs, because they’re definitely the two premier teams in 4A. And then Winona is one of the top-tier teams in 3A. I think this past week against Winona we didn’t play up to our potential, so I look for our kids to bounce back this week with a good game.”
The Tigers rolled up 486 yards rushing. Blake Cooper added 84 yards, while Jay Lofton pitched in with 71 yards and one touchdown. Zaveion Ward had 52 yards and one touchdown, and Jalen Campbell ended the night with one touchdown on one carry for two yards.
Kosciusko led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter, but Winona rattled off 41 unanswered points in the second and third quarters.
The Whippets had no answer for the Tiger defense, as Kosciusko tallied 41 yards passing and 67 yards rushing to end the contest with 108 yards of total offense.
Kosciusko took a 7-0 lead with 8:57 remaining in the opening quarter on a 16-yard touchdown run by Zavier Miller and the PAT by Cody Pope.
Coffey and the Tigers responded when the quarterback ripped off a 26-yard touchdown run. Winona missed the extra-point kick and trailed by one point with 2:17 left to play in the first quarter.
Winona grabbed its first lead of the game with 7:45 remaining in the second quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Campbell, and a successful two-point conversion pushed the Tigers ahead 14-7.
Coffey dashed for an 82-yard touchdown with 3:56 left before intermission, and he added a 5-yard scoring run with just 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter to cap a 7-play, 55-yard drive. Tigers kicker Cade Eldridge made both PATs and Winona led 28-7 at halftime.
Winona’s 20-minute halftime break did not impede Coffey’s momentum.
Coffey scored on a 31-yard touchdown run just three minutes into the third quarter to stretch the Tigers’ lead to 34-7 after a blocked extra-point kick. Lofton ran for a 5-yard touchdown 35 seconds later, and Coffey tallied his fifth score of the night on a 12-yard touchdown run with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter to give Winona a 47-7 advantage.
A running clock was implemented in the fourth quarter following a 47-yard touchdown run by Ward.
On the ensuing kickoff, Miller gave Kosciusko its second touchdown of the game on an 83-yard return, but the Whippets missed their extra-point attempt.
Miller finished with 45 yards rushing and one touchdown on five carries. He also had two catches for 14 yards. Azikwe Mays’ 27 yards receiving were a team-high.
Ethan Wood was 3 of 8 passing with 41 yards and one interception.
With the regular season complete, Kosciusko enters the postseason as the No. 3 seed in Region 4-4A. The Whippets travel to Corinth Friday for their playoff opener.
The No. 2-seeded Warriors enter the postseason at 9-2 overall and 4-1 in Region 1-4A. They dropped a 39-38 contest to Senatobia last week in the regular-season finale.
The Friday contest is the first meeting between the two schools.
“It’s a really long trip – about a three-hour trip, which is probably the furthest you can go in 4A, so it’s going to be a long trip for us,” Causey said. “They’ve had a good year. They slipped up Friday night and let Senatobia beat them late for their district championship to put them at No. 2. But we feel like our district is as strong as any district, so we feel like we should be able to play with anybody we face. We’re going up there with high expectations.”
