When Ethel football coach Adam Smith find something he likes, he will stick with it.
That was certainly the case on Friday night as Marcus Jones ran for 300 yards and the Tigers ran for 481 yards and pulled away from Leake County to take a 56-20 win in a Division 3-1A matchup.
Ethel improves to 4-1 on the season and will travel to rival French Camp on Friday night.
While the offense was doing its part on Friday night, the defense was struggling, giving up three scores and keeping the Gators in the game.
“We still have to play a good first half,” Smith said. “I can’t really explain that. We had a good first half on offense but were kind of lost on defense and gave them some big plays. They were giving us some favorable alignments on defense and we just kept running the game thing. We were breaking some long runs and just stayed with it. We did recover three onside kicks and they only had a few possessions. We were just playing keep away. We also had an interception and a fumble recovery so that’s five takeaways. If you can get that many takeaway, you are going to be OK and have a good night.”
The Gators never really slowed the Tiger down. In the first quarter, Ethel scored first on a 31-yard run by Anton Clark and then added a second score on a 30-yard run by Marcus Jones.
In the second Clark got another score on a 14-yard run with the two-point conversion while Jones added a second score with a 44-yard run and a two-point conversion as the Tigers led 28-20 at the half.
“We felt like we should have played a lot better and did more than we did,” Smith said. “We had some mistakes and penalties and did some bonehead type of stuff. We had some false starts and mental mistakes on defense. It never should have been that close. We acted like we didn’t know where we were on defense. We shouldn’t have allowed as much as we did. I wished we would have played more solid on defense.”
The Tigers came out of the half and got a big play on special teams as Bobo Hubbert returning the opening kick 87 yards for a touchdown. The try for two failed and Ethel led 34-20.
The Tigers continued to add to their total as Hubbert scored on a 4-yard run. The try for two failed and Ethel led 40-20.
The Tigers added two more scores in the fourth quarter. The first was a 24-yard run by Jones while Hubbert ran in the two-point try to make the score 48-20.
The last score was a 9-yard run by Hunter Corley, who also ran in the two-point conversion for the final margin of 56-20.
The Tigers had 481 yards of total offense as Jones ran for 300 yards on 27 carries with three TDs. Clark had 103 yards on eight carries with two TDs. Bobo Hubbert had 47 yards on eight carries.
“Marcus ran for 300 yard and we really didn’t want him to have to run that much,” Smith said. “We didn’t want him to be that involved but Anton went down with an ankle injury and Marcus was our hot hand. He was pretty much the bell cow and got it done.”
Davion Hunt led the defense with two solo tackles, two assists and one sack.
This week’s game
The Tigers will try to continue their strong play as they host rival French Camp on Friday night.
The Panthers are 1-4 on the season with their lone win coming over Nanih Waiya (28-20). They have losses to Winona Christian (35-28), Eupora (42-12), Starkville Academy (53-0) and Hamilton (25-21).
“It’s a rivalry and there are a lot of family connections between the two schools,” Smith said. “You can throw the records out the window. It doesn’t matter in this game. We are going to get the best game they play all year. I feel like it will be a tough game. They are well coached and have some good athletes.”
Last year, French Camp beat Ethel 36-6.
- An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the location of Ethel's next game, which will be played at home.
