Southside MS- Southside had the size, but Mandarin had the speed as the Hawks soared to a 3-0 start after dominating Southside 30-0 on Tuesday.
One of the players of the game were Mandarin’s running-back Troy Butler who rushed for over 100-yards and scored two touchdowns. His first came on the game’s first series, when he took a handoff and cut right breaking arm tackles on his way to the end-zone for a 25-yard touchdown.
Yet Southside would make some plays early on #13 Traveion Capshaw forced fumble on a strip tackle and it was recovered by #1 Tamajh Mitchell. The play prevented another touchdown by Mandarin.
Although it prevented a touchdown, it backed Southside up deep in their own territory. The field position resulted in a safety by Southside making the score 8-0.
Mandarin’s quarterback Aiden Buckler was another player of the game. He tossed two touchdown passes in the game, his first coming in the second quarter when he hit his tight-end Logan Johnson for a beautiful wide-pen touchdown. The strike would put Mandarin up 14-0. A two point conversion would give the Hawks a 16-0 lead at halftime.
The second half saw Buckler and Butler go to work again. Running back James Davis powered the running game in between the twenties, as Mandarin drove into the Southside red-zone. Aiden Buckler would drop back and toss a swing pass to his running-back out of the back field #27 Renmahn Dukes for his second touchdown. 22-0 The score after the failed 2-point conversion in Mandarin’s favor.
Butler would provide the finishing touches when he burst a 53 yard run for the final touchdown of the game. A 2-point conversion gave Mandarin a 30-0 lead and the win.
As defending Duval County Middle School Champions, Mandarin looks to repeat as back to back title holders. With a seemingly even better team this year than last year, they look good to give it another run fro the south division.
Southside suffered their second consecutive division loss. They’ll look to get better and rebound next week.
