LAUREL - Everything that could wrong for Hattiesburg went wrong. Injuries, bad snaps, and Laurel running back Kiron Benjamin culminated in the Tigers being shutout 50-0 in the 100th edition of the Little Brown Jug game at Watkins Stadium on Saturday night.
"Hats off to (Laurel Coach Ryan Earnest) and his coaching staff and team," Hattiesburg coach Tony Vance said. "They came out and were the better football team tonight. There were tough injuries, but that's part of the game."
Laurel's win, which is the largest margin of victory in the history of the series, also has playoff ramifications. With a win, the Tigers could have clinched the region title but will now head into the 5A playoffs as a No. 4 seed while Laurel jumps to a No. 3 seed.
However, the biggest catastrophe of the loss for Hattiesburg was losing quarterback Tavares Wade to an injury early in the first quarter. Wade's injury left the Hattiesburg offense practically out of commission as the Tigers finished the game with negative -6 yards of total offense.
Even before Wade went down, momentum quickly shifted in Laurel's favor.
Hattiesburg opened the game by recovering an onside kick. On the Tigers' second offensive play, Wade connected with DeVaunce Norman for what looked to be a six-yard gain. But Laurel's Quandarius Keyes ripped the ball out of Norman's hands and returned it to the Tigers' 28-yard line. This set up the first of Benjamin's five touchdowns, as he pounded into the end zone on a 1-yard run to go give the Tornadoes a 7-0 lead.
On the next drive, Hattiesburg turned the ball over on downs after a fake punt failed. Benjamin scored again from 5-yards out to extend Laurel's lead to 14-0.
Wade then went down with his injury on Hattiesburg's next drive, and from there, things quickly sputtered with Benjamin reaching the end zone two more times before halftime, which gave the Tornadoes a 27-0 lead. Benjamin racked up 120 of his 140 yards by the half.
"I think everybody has had trouble stopping him," Vance said. "He is a really good running back. I've said it all week. He is one of the best running backs in the state. He's running behind one of the best offensive lines in the state. He proved that tonight."
Hattiesburg's problem then grew with the Tigers being unable to get a snap off. In the Tigers' first four drives of the second half, snaps flew over the various backup quarterbacks' heads. Two of those four drives resulted in fumbles, with another leading to a safety.
"Getting a good snap and just trying to handle it was our Achilles heel tonight," Vance said. "We just didn't do a good job of that."
Benjamin scored his final touchdown of the game at the start of the third quarter. From there, Laurel running back's Caden Arrington and Brayden Jordan put the game away for Laurel as the Tornados tacked on 23 points in the second half.
Hattiesburg will now prepare for the playoffs as the Tigers will take on No. 1 seeded Picayune.
"It's the playoffs. We have to regroup," Vance said. "We have to go back and find our identity at this point after a tough loss tonight. We are going to be a team of character. We are going to play with character. We'll get things fixed and go from there."
