Oak Grove continues to stay red hot after rolling past Meridian 35-0 in the second round of the Class 7A playoffs.
The Warriors will now be making their fifth South State Championship appearance since 2018.
“This is the expectation of this program,” Oak Grove coach Drew Causey said. “These kids are living up to it. We have a great challenge going on the road.
“We are playing with a lot more determination, and we are playing like we are supposed to.”
The Warriors will now rematch Brandon, who handed Oak Grove its lone loss of the season back in Week 7. According to Oak Grove quarterback AJ Maddox, the loss to Brandon has been fuel for his team.
“Obviously, we wanted to go undefeated, but that didn’t happen,” said Maddox, who threw for 284 yards and accounted for four touchdowns in the victory. “We got upset by Brandon earlier in the season, but it’s just keeping that in the back of our minds. It’s fuel for us. As a team, we are pretty internally motivated, but that kind of fueled a little more fire in us to keep going.
“We are going to South State, and it’s a huge honor. But we have a lot of work to do this week.”
As stellar as the Oak Grove offense was in the win against Meridian, the Warrior defense was exceptional as it forced four turnovers against the Wildcats and held star running back Daniel Hill to 52 yards. Notably, just two plays accounted for 111 of Meridians’ 131 total yards in offense.
“Defensively, we had harped all week on how bad we played the first time we played those guys,” Causey said. “We had 31 missed tackles so that was something we focused on all week. Our defense stepped up to the challenge and pitched a shutout in the playoffs.”
After Oak Grove forced Meridian to punt on the opening drive, a 39-yard reception by PJ Woodland set up a 7-yard touchdown run for Kylin Champagne to give the Warriors a 7-0 lead.
From there, Oak Grove’s defense took over, with linebacker Jaylan Moore intercepting Hill on the Wildcats’ next drive. The Warriors drove to the five-yard line, Maddox kept the ball himself but lost his helmet as he dove for the touchdown.
“I wasn’t really worried about that,” Maddox said when he lost his helmet. “I just wanted to get into the end zone. I wanted to hurdle over him, but they call a flag on that in high school, so I had to lower my shoulder and make a play. After that, the game was pretty much over. The momentum was on our side.”
On the ensuing drive, Meridian fumbled the ball away, and Maddox scored again to give the Warriors a quick 21-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.
One drive later, Maddox showed off his arm and connected with Damari Jefferson for a 42-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Then, at the start of the second half, Maddox found Jefferson on the same route for a 30-yard touchdown to start the running clock.
“It was two verticals,” Maddox said. “(Jefferson really created a lot of separation on those two routes. He made a heck of a play on the first one. The second one was a better ball, but he did a heck of a job of getting off the line of scrimmage and ran a great route.”
In the second half, the Warriors forced two more turnovers, with Tajii Burkett intercepting Hill and Taylor Moncrief later recovering a fumble. On offense, Woodland finished the game with seven catches for 146 yards, while Jefferson had three catches for 79 yards and two scores.
“Staying locked in all weeks and controlling what we can control has been the main point of emphasis for us as a team,” Maddox said. “I know if we come out and execute and do what we are supposed to do every single week, then we’ll get to this point. We haven’t done anything yet.”
Oak Grove will travel to play Brandon next week, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
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