Wildcats Roll in 1st Round

Friday night’s wet, dreary weather kept the crowd to a minimum for Abbeville High’s first-round playoff game against Pearl River at Wildcat Stadium.
Temperatures in the lower 60s and upper 50s and a steady rain throughout the game suited the Wildcats just fine, though, as Abbeville rushed for 418 yards in beating the visiting Rebels 34-20.
Many of the Wildcats chose to celebrate their third straight first-round playoff win with impromptu slip-and-slide fun on the field, adding a bit more mud to their already well-saturated red jerseys and white pants.
“We did a real good job up front,” Abbeville head coach Roderick Moy said. “We had to hold on there at the end. That’s a tough football team on the other side that didn’t want to go home. At the end of the day, when they got it within one score and we needed a drive to not end our season, we were able to put it together, and we were able to do what we do. We didn’t change who we were.
“We’re not going to change who we are. Everybody else got nervous, and I said, we need to go down and be ourselves. And we did.”
The Wildcats were unstoppable in the first half. Pearl River used a lateral and a long return on the opening kickoff to stun the home crowd right off the bat, but couldn’t convert the extra point and settled for a 6-0 lead with only seven seconds off the clock.
Abbeville took the ensuing kickoff to the 31, and proceeded to dominate the line of scrimmage and the clock the rest of the half.
AHS chewed up the next 3 1/2 minutes with an eight play drive, capped by Justin Montgomery’s three-yard TD run with 8:11 to go. Zaylun Williams came in at fullback to tack on the 2-point conversion for an 8-6 AHS lead.
Montgomery led the Wildcats with 130 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.
After Tahj Judge snuffed out the next drive with an interception in the end zone, the Wildcats marched 80 yards in six plays, with quarterback Da’Zavien Maze scoring on a 20-yard keeper to extend the lead to 16-6 following a second 2-point run by Williams. Maze had 45 yards on six carries before leaving the game with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter.
After forcing a three-and-out, Abbeville marched 70 yards in eight plays, overcoming two penalties along the way, to tack on another touchdown, this time on a 23-yard run by Montgomery. The missed 2-point try left AHS with a 22-6 lead.
Another defensive stop set up a fourth straight touchdown drive, this one going 61 yards in 10 plays. Edmar Simon III capped the drive with a four-yard scoring run.
Simon finished the night with 53 yards and two touchdowns on only seven runs.
Abbeville scored on four of five first-half possessions with the only other touch coming on a kneel just before half after Williams recovered his own onside kick for the Wildcats with two seconds remaining in the half.
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Pearl River mounted a comeback try in the second half, scoring on Tashod Badon’s eight-yard run with 3:43 left in the third quarter and the 2-point conversion by quarterback Trey Turnage.
After an Abbeville fumble gave the Rebels the ball, Pearl River drove into AHS territory, but Simon picked off Turnage at the 1-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“I’ve been needing that all season,” Simon said. “All my defensive back guys have one, and I’ve been waiting to get mine. I told coach it was going to come when we most needed it, and it came.”
The ensuing drive stalled thanks to a couple of penalties, and after a punt to the Pearl River 39, Badon broke loose on a 61-yard touchdown, breaking tackles at the 20 and 10 yard lines along the way, to pull the Rebels to within 28-20.
Badon, one of two runners for Pearl River with 1,000 rushing yards this year, finished the night with 184 yards and three TDs on 20 carries. Ziderius Brown, the other 1,000-yard rusher for PRHS, finished the night with 27 yards on six carries.
Abbeville answered quickly, returning the kickoff to the 48 and then driving 52 yards on eight plays, capped by Simon’s 11-yard touchdown run with 3:07 left in the game.
Simon stressed the running backs’ unselfish play, allowing each other to shine while trying to control the clock and keep the ball away from Pearl River at the end of the night.
“That’s what we try to do,” he said. “Just pound the ball. We trust our offensive line and not being selfish and playing defense, letting those guys get the carries, then when coach needed me, I go punch it in.”
Ta’Zavian Andrews had 120 yards on the ground for the Wildcats on a dozen rushes. Williams added 26 yards on five bruising carries, with three of those carries on the final scoring drive.
“Everybody,” Moy said of the rushing success. “From quarterback, both backs (Andrews and Simon), both fullbacks (Williams and Montgomery). Defensive guys coming across (to offense) and doing a good job for us. Receivers doing a good job blocking on the perimeter. At the end of the day, those five big hogs up front, those five guys on the offensive line, won this ballgame for us.”
“Having those five seniors on the offensive line who have been with us, we can always count on them,” Simon agreed.
The extent of Maze’s injury had yet to be determined, but Moy is confident in Tahj Judge, who started at QB for two years before becoming primarily a cornerback this season.
“Hopefully we can get (Maze) back next week, but we’ve got a guy waiting in the wings, and if it’s bad news, we’ve got a guy back there we trust either way.”
Thirteenth-seeded Abbeville, which improved to 9-2, travels to No. 4 seed Lutcher (7-2) to face the defending Division II state champions this Friday.
No. 20 Pearl River finished the season at 5-5.