BRANDON – Oak Grove senior quarterback John Rhys Plumlee said it best in the postgame team huddle. “We have one more Monday,” he screamed, followed by a boisterous roar from his teammates.
“That’s right,” Oak Grove coach Drew Causey echoed.
That’s because the Oak Grove Warriors clinched a spot in the 6A State Championship after a 21-10 takedown of the Brandon Bulldogs Friday night.
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It’s the first state championship appearance since 2014 and it comes after a two-year playoff drought. After Friday night, there isn’t any doubt the Warriors deserve to play for a state championship, and they’ll get a shot Friday at 7 p.m. against Horn Lake in Southern Miss’ M.M. Roberts Stadium.
“(It feels) unbelievable,” Causey said. “I’m really happy for our guys, the coaches and everybody. I couldn’t be happier.”
History didn’t repeat itself
When Oak Grove and Brandon met on the field in October, Oak Grove built a 14-0 lead only to fall 31-21. Although it was just a 7-0 lead at halftime Friday, the Warriors’ defense was playing well enough to make it seem like Oak Grove had control of the game.
The Brandon Bulldogs, however, proved to be a quick strike offense with 10 straight points in the third and fourth quarters. With more than eight minutes time left in the contest, Brandon led 10-7 and the Warriors’ offense had only 42 yards and two first downs since they scored their lone touchdown as time expired in the second quarter.
After the two teams traded punts twice each in the third quarter, Brandon’s third drive of the second half started at its own 10-yard line. The Bulldogs didn’t have bad field position for long, though, because Brandon’s Jonathan Mingo caught a pass over the middle then sprinted down the field for a 77-yard gain. Brandon running back Dallas Smith punched it in from the 5-yard line three plays later to tie the game 7-7.
On Brandon’s next possession in the fourth quarter, a 73-yard pass play from Brandon quarterback Will Rogers to senior receiver Jay Stanley set up a 22-yard field goal by Mason Walker to give the Bulldogs their first lead 10-7.
“Nothing changed,” Causey said of the team’s mood. “Them getting to the 5 and us getting the stop was huge. Just holding them to a field goal. We felt like we had something we liked running game wise (on offense).”
Oak Grove answered quickly. The Warriors got the ball back with 8:23 left on the clock, and they put together an eight-play, 65-yard drive to regain the lead. Senior Jarius Smith rushed it from the 11-yard line to give his team the 14-10 advantage.
“It was now or never,” Smith said. “We couldn’t sit there and let them hang around. We had to score. I saw a wide-open hole and I just hit. There were so many thoughts running through my head, I don’t even know.”
After Brandon went three-and-out, the Warriors needed just two plays to put the game on ice. Plumlee took it 48 yards up the middle to extend the lead to 21-10 with two and a half minutes left in the game. As it turns out, Plumlee and the Warriors were setting themselves for a big play, and they picked the right time to put the ball in Plumlee's hands.
“We had been running the play over and over and they were beginning to catch on to it,” Plumlee said. “We kind of put something in on the fly and it worked out for us. Once I got space, I hit the gas pedal.”
Plumlee finished the night with 167 rushing and two touchdowns on 23 carries while he also passed for 89 yards on 8-of-15 tries. Smith added 87 yards on the ground on 17 attempts.
Reimonenq’s defense
Oak Grove senior defensive back Jarius Reimonenq had a difficult task Friday night. He was in charge of covering one of the state’s best receivers, Brandon’s Mingo.
He wasn’t going to back down, though.
“It was a normal week for us,” Reimonenq said. “Coach told me I had a challenge. He’s one of the best receivers in the state and I had to follow him everywhere he went, so I was up for it. We just practiced and worked. When it came to game time, I did what I had to do.”
Mingo is hard to stop, and he still gained 145 yards on 6 receptions. But, when Reimonenq needed to make a big play, he did. In the second quarter, he picked off a long pass intended for Mingo, and that set up Oak Grove’s first touchdown of the game. In the fourth quarter, Reimonenq broke up a third-and-33 pass on the outside to force a punt from Brandon.
“I knew it was coming from film study,” Reimonenq said on the interception play. “I knew he was about to run a vertical or post, and I was on top of his vertical but he broke into a post. I took away his up-field shoulder so he couldn’t make the catch, then I just laid out for it.”
On the third-down stop later in the game, Reimonenq recognized that play coming, too. On a third-and-long play when the two teams met earlier this season, Mingo and the Bulldogs converted a similar play.
“I just backed up, shuffled a little bit and I knew it was coming,” Reimonenq said. “The first time he did catch it on me, so I was like, ‘It ain’t happening again.’”
