Breaking news: Trenton-Peabody has a pretty good football team.
The host Golden Tide jumped to a 34-0 halftime lead and streaked to a 48-0 victory over McKenzie in the second round of the Class 2A state playoffs Friday night.
It was Peabody’s second victory of the season over the Rebels. The Tide defeated MHS 42-0 on Sept. 6.
Peabody, 12-0, took advantage of three McKenzie turnovers and five plays of over 20 yards to defeat the Rebels. McKenzie had to deal with the Tide’s superior team speed, and it proved costly.
“Hat’s off to Trenton. They have an awfully good team and they are state champions for a reason,” said McKenzie coach Wade Comer. “I thought our kids played hard and got after them well. We did some things well, just not consistent enough, but overall, I was proud of the way our kids came out and played.”
The Rebels struggled to get anything going offensively. Meanwhile, the Tide compiled 446 total yards of offense. McKenzie managed 171 total yards, and 106 of them came on two plays. Micah Austin broke for a 64-yard run in the second quarter. In the third quarter, Evan Jarrett found Kaden Allen for a 42-yard hookup. McKenzie also got into the red zone twice, but was held out both times.
McKenzie and Trenton were scoreless for most of the first quarter, but Peabody’s Carson Vandiver blocked a Rebel punt and scooped it for an 11-yard score with 5:57 left in the first. The Tide dented the scoreboard again with Noah Halbrook’s 18-yard run with 1:16 remaining in the first. The Tide led 14-0.
Cooper Baugus completed TD passes of 55 and 29 yards in the second quarter, the first to Halbrook, the second to Eli Hammonds, for a 27-0 lead. With 1:15 remaining in the second, Jaquez Wilkins tiptoed in from the 5 and Peabody led 34-0.
Baugus scored from 1 with 7:31 to play in the third, which prompted a running clock the rest of the way. Khalik Ganaway’s 43-yard TD run with a minute to play sewed things up for the Tide, who have won 20 straight.
“They hurt us on the perimeter. They got some passes off on us and they got to the edge,” Comer said. “I thought we defended their counter, but we didn’t have an answer once they got outside.”
Jarrett was 7-16 for 82 yards passing. Micah Austin had 98 rushing yards, and Allen had three catches for 55 yards. The Rebels finished with a 6-6 mark, making to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and advancing to the second round for the first time since 2015.
The Rebels lose seven seniors: West Cook, Micah Austin, Jordan Barnhart, Jeremiah Moore, Evan Jarrett, Kyle Maxwell and Whit Mitchum. Comer says their leadership will be sorely missed, but a good nucleus of experienced players returns for next season.
“Going down to Mitchell last week and getting that playoff win was huge for us and gives us a lot of momentum going into the off-season,” Comer said. “And this says a lot about this senior class. They took the young kids under their wings and prodded these younger kids along.”
But there will be a lot of experienced sophomores in 2020.
“We’ve had four, maybe five freshman letter since I’ve been here, which was 2000, and this year it looks like we’ll have eight letter this year,” said the coach. “They grew as they went along. They are going to help us going into the off-season. They have a better understanding why we work so hard in the off-season.”
Meanwhile, defending state champion Peabody will host Memphis-Fairley (10-2) at 7 p.m. Friday.
