MHS falls to PSJ

The Port St. Joe Sharks got a huge performance from Calvin Pryor and held off a late rally by Marianna to deal the Bulldogs a 23-22 defeat Friday night in Marianna.

Port St. Joe (6-2) led 23-14 with 2:52 left in the game, but the Bulldogs (4-5) answered back with a 25-yard touchdown run by Tre Jackson.

The junior tailback then converted the two-point play to make it a one-point game with 33.9 seconds to play.

Things got really interesting when Marianna’s Craig Leslie recovered the ensuing onside kick at the Port St. Joe 48-yard line with 31.9 seconds left in the game.

The Sharks’ defense held strong, though, stuffing RJ Bowers for a 1-yard gain and forcing the Bulldogs to burn their final timeout with 26.1 seconds to play.

The Bulldogs were able to stop the clock with a first down when Jackson threw a halfback pass to Bowers for 11 yards to the Port St. Joe 36-yard line.

But sophomore quarterback Hakeem Holmes was stopped for a one-yard loss in bounds on the next play, and time expired before the Bulldogs could spike the football.

It was a tough loss for the Bulldogs, who dropped their second heartbreaker in a row.

However, Marianna coach Steve DeWitt said he was proud of his team’s resiliency.

“They played hard all the way until the end,” the coach said. “Port St. Joe has a real good football team. They’re very athletic and played a good game tonight. We just ran out of time at the end.

“I was hoping to get (MHS kicker) Ryan Rudd a chance to win it for us with a kick, but we just couldn’t get close enough.”

It was a fast finish in a game that also had a fast start, and not much action in between.

Pryor got things started with an 82-yard TD run down the left sideline, breaking a Marianna tackle and accelerating past the defense to score.

But Marianna got its answer from its own speedster, as Jackson took the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

The Bulldogs used a fake extra point for a two-point conversion, with Jackson shoveling a pass to Chris Bowers to make it an 8-7 MHS lead.

That’s how it remained until the third quarter, when the Sharks got a 44-yard pass from Trubias Hill to Pryor to set up a 16-yard TD run by Darrell Smith to make it 13-8.

Later in the quarter, the Sharks capitalized on a Bulldogs turnover to add three more points on a 29-yard field goal by Daniel May to make it 16-8.

The Bulldogs were able to cut into the lead with their first drive of the fourth quarter, which marked off 81 yards on 10 plays and consumed 6:01 of game clock.

A 36-yard run by Jackson set up Marjean Dean’s 15-yard TD run with 4:42 to play.

But a crucial false start penalty caused the Bulldogs to attempt the two-point play from the 8-yard line instead of the 3.

That proved to be the difference, as Jackson was stopped by Smith at the 5-yard line to preserve the 16-14 lead. PSJ recovered the onside kick, and scored five plays later on a 4th-and-9 halfback pass from Pryor to Willie Quinn that scored from 30 yards out. The extra point made it 23-14 with 2:52 to play.

The Bulldogs got the ball back on their own 48-yard line, and got a 23-yard run by Holmes to set up Jackson’s 25-yarder.

Jackson finished the game with 89 rushing yards on 13 carries, while Dean had 44 yards on eight rushes.

But it was Pryor who was the star of the game, racking up 266 total yards of offense. The senior rushed for 161 yards, passed for 61, and had 44 yards receiving.