By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
HATTIESBURG – George County had the potential to be a trap game for Oak Grove, coming as it did two weeks after a tough home loss to Hattiesburg and a week before a showdown at archrival Petal.
But the Warriors came out focused and determined, taking care of business with a sensational first half, and cruised to a 39-7 victory Friday night in the Region 3-6A opener for both teams.
Oak Grove, which came in this week at No. 7 in the Mississippi Gridiron Class 6A rankings, improved to 4-1 overall; George County dropped to 1-5 overall.
“We’re coming off getting beat on our home field, and it’s the first week of (region) play,” said Oak Grove coach Drew Causey. “It’s critical to start 1-0, especially our region. You start 0-1 in our district and you’re in the hole. No, the kids were locked in and had two great weeks of practice getting ready.”
The Warriors surrendered a first down on a defensive holding penalty on the first play of the game. By the time the Rebels recorded their second first down, Oak Grove was comfortably ahead 29-0 midway through the second quarter.
“We had a game plan to stop the run, the speed option they have,” said senior defensive end Jack Harris. “We wanted to stone them coming out of the gate, we stuck to the game plan and we did that.”
Oak Grove held George County to a net of minus-11 yards rushing, including four sacks for 22 yards in losses.
George County stopped the Warriors on their first offensive possession, but on the second, senior quarterback John Rhys Plumlee unwrapped his favorite play, getting Oak Grove on the scoreboard with a 34-yard dash on the pass-run option.
Plumlee had his first 100-yard rushing game of the season, netting an even 100 yards on 11 carries with two scores, and he completed 11 of 21 passes for 179 yards and three touchdown passes.
“I didn’t run the ball as much early in the season, but we started putting things in the last couple of weeks for me to run the ball more,” said Plumlee, who rushed for 600 yards and 8 TDs last season. “I enjoy running it, so it was really neat to run it as well as I did tonight.
“It’s really good when you can be successful running the ball. They really have to bite on the play-action and that opens up so many more windows for the passing game.”
After the first touchdown, Causey went to his bag of tricks, calling for an onside kick, which the Warriors executed to perfection, setting the stage for a brisk three-play, 49-yard drive, with Plumlee scoring on a 10-yard scamper late in the first period.
“It’s something we’ve been working on in practice, and we decided to try it after we saw how they were lined up for the kickoff the first time,” said Causey. “We wanted to be aggressive and I thought we did that tonight.”
Oak Grove kept the pedal to the metal in the second quarter, scoring on a 22-yard pass to junior Tavion Smith, then Plumlee pulled the ball away on a fake kick and ran for the PAT that made the score 22-0.
The Warriors added a 16-yard catch-and-run for a score to senior running back Jordan D’Errico and a 37-yard field goal by Blake Ortego to take a 32-0 lead into halftime.
Smith and senior Jarius Reimonenq combined for six catches for 129 yards as they’ve had to step up to fill the shoes on injured standouts Kevin Barnett and Brandon Hayes. Reimonenq played most of the game on both sides of the ball, and Plumlee said that was a big part of the passing game.
“When defensive players play offense, they know a whole lot more about offense than the offensive guys know about defense,” said Plumlee. “A good DB knows a lot more about running routes to put other DBs in a bad position. Jarius does that very well, and that makes it easier on me.”
The Warriors were considerably less sharp on offense in the second half, but the defense continued to keep the Rebels bottled up, and Oak Grove was able to add another score on a 9-yard pass from Plumlee to senior Adam Banks early in the fourth quarter.
George County finally got on the scoreboard with 3:35 to play on an 11-yard pass from Kyle Chapman to Jonavan Jackson.
“It was really important for us to come out and play well to start a new season,” said Reimonenq. “We finished off non-region play 3-1, and while that one loss really hurt us, we put that behind us and tried to learn from it.”
Oak Grove will travel across town next week to take on Petal in a critical region battle. The Warriors are back home the following week to face Meridian.
GAME SUMMARY
Friday at Hattiesburg
Oak Grove 39, George County 7
George County 0 0 0 7 – 7
Oak Grove 14 18 0 7 – 39
First Quarter
OG – John Rhys Plumlee 34 run (Blake Ortego kick), 3:45 (5 plays/56 yards/1:58 possession).
OG – Plumlee 10 run (Ortego kick), 2:49 (3/49/0:56)
Second Quarter
OG – Plumee 22 pass to Tavion Smith (Plumlee run) 11:35 (5/51/2:29).
OG – Plumlee 16 pass to Jordan D’Errico (Ortego kick), (3/12/0:33).
OG – Ortego 37 field goal, 2:23 (9/74/3:27).
Fourth Quarter
OG – Plumlee 9 pass to Adam Banks (Ortego kick), 9:46 (5/36/3:12).
GC – Kyle Chapman 11 pass to Jonavan Jackson (Rashaun Ludgood kick), 3:35 (8/72/6:11).
TEAM STATISTICS
GC OG
First downs 8 15
Total net yards 135 372
Rushes-yards 22-(-11) 33-193
Passing yards 146 179
Comp-Att-Int 7-21-1 11-21-1
Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-0
Penalties-yards 5-40 6-50
Punts-total (avg.) 7-246 (35.1) 2-83 (41.5)
Sacks-yards 1-3 3-15
3rd down conv. 5-13 5-10
4th down conv. 0-1 0-1
Time of possession 22:15 25:45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
George County – Jaylen Fairley 4-11, Adonnis Dickey 5-7, Ja’vion Scott 3-0, Jonathan Havard 2-(10), Kyle Chapman 4-(-22); Oak Grove –John Rhys Plumlee 11-100, Nick Milsap 9-29, Eugene Newell Jr. 3-23, Ahkam Toy 1-17, Ben Johnson 1-10, Trey Lott 2-4, Dazerick Patton 1-2, Kendall Barney 1-23, Team 1-(-2).
Passing
George County – Kyle Chapman 7-19-1-146, Jonathan Havard 0-2-0-0; Oak Grove – John Rhys Plumlee 11-21-1-179.
Receiving
George County – Jonavan Jackson 5-84, Treonte Jackson 1-46, Jonathan Havard 1-16; Oak Grove – Tavion Smith 3-68, Jarius Reimonenq 3-61, Jordan Coleman 1-16, Jordan D’Errico 1-16, Liam Breithaupt 2-9, Adam Banks 1-9.
