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The Drew Central Pirates’ historical season will continue for at least one more week after successfully hosting their first 3A State Football Championship playoff contest with the fourth seeded Paris Eagles coming to Mike Pennington Stadium.
Drew Central would host a tailgate and Pirate Victory Walk before Friday night’s contest with the help of sponsors to celebrate the Pirates historical season and their first playoff home game in school history.
Paris would win the opening coin toss and would elect to receive the football to begin the first round of the 3A Tournament.
Hunter Griffin would kick the ball away with Dimitri Capo taking the kick at the five yard line and advancing the ball to the Eagle 25 to begin the contest.
The Eagles would advance to the Pirate 49, but the Pirate defense would push the Eagles back to their own 35 where the Eagles would punt the ball away.
Blake Chandler would take the Eagle punt at the Pirate 25 for a 28-yard return to the Eagle 47.
On the first play of the Pirate drive, Tre’Bennett Fuller would pick up seven yards down to the 40 and on the next play Tyviance Wormley would break free for a 30-yard run down to the 10.
Fuller would cover the 10 yards on the next play for the touchdown.
The extra point was not successful with the Pirates taking a 6-0 lead.
The Eagles next drive would result with the ball being turned over on downs at the Pirate 17 with the Pirates drive extending into the second quarter and being forced to punt the ball away giving the Eagles possession at their own 49.
Paris would drive down to the Pirate 10 yard line when quarterback Joshua Honea’s pass was intercepted by Bernard Pitts at the goal line and returned back to the Pirate 43.
Fuller began the drive with an incomplete pass followed by a seven-yard run by Wormley to the 50.
Zae Bullard would get the next carry and would break several tackles to get free for the 50-yard touchdown run.
Griffin would add the extra point to give the Pirates the 13-0 lead.
The Pirate defense would force the Eagles to punt with the Pirates taking over at the Eagles 32.
Wormley would advance the ball to the 28 with Jayden Jones breaking free on the next play for the 28-yard score.
Griffin added the extra point for the 20-0 lead.
Paris would be forced to punt again on the next drive with the Pirates taking over on their own 28.
Fuller moved the ball down to the Eagle 36, but the Pirates would lose for yards on the next play.
Jayden Jones would break free once more on the next play for a 40-yard touchdown run.
Griffin added the extra point for a 27-0 lead.
Each tema would turn the ball over on their next possessions with Fuller intercepting Honea’s pass and the Eagles intercepting Fuller on the next pass.
Bullard would then intercept the Honea pass on the next possession, returning the ball 37 yards for a defensive score.
The two-point play was unsuccessful to give the Pirates a 33-0.
The score would remain for the remainder of the half after Jayden Jones intercepted a Honea pass to end the half.
The Pirates would add two more scores in the second half with Wormley scoring on a four yard run and an extra point by Griffin for a 40-0 lead.
Paris would get their only score of the contest on a five-yard run by Honea but the extra point failed to make the score 40-6.
Drew Central would get the final score of the contest on a 24-yard field goal by Griffin to set up the final score of 43-6.
With the win the Pirates improve to 6-5 overall, the best record in school history, and record their first playoff win in school history.
The Pirates will now remain at home for the second round to host the fourth seeded Osceola Seminoles who defeated the second seeded Cutter Morning Star 56-22.
Drew Central and Osceola will kickoff at 7 pm with tailgating festivities beginning at 4:30 pm at Drew Central.
