Tallulah rolls in eight-man playoff victory

Published 12:40 am Saturday, November 7, 2015

Tallulah Academy’s second go-round with Franklin Academy ended the same as the first, and meant a whole lot more.

Mason Todd threw two touchdown passes to Dakota Cone, and ran for 88 yards and two more scores as the Trojans thumped Franklin 42-6 in the first round of the MAIS eight-man playoffs Friday night in Tallulah.

Tallulah Academy (10-1) beat Franklin (7-5) for the second consecutive week. It won 50-14 in the regular-season finale to claim the District 4-A title. Friday’s win sends the Trojans on to the eight-man semifinals for the second consecutive season, where they’ll host Hebron Christian next week.

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Hebron upset previously unbeaten Marvell Academy 54-46 on Friday.

“It was a big win. It’s hard enough to beat a team twice, but to beat them like we beat them was a surprise for me,” Tallulah coach Bo Barton said. “We were hitting on all cylinders tonight.”

Tallulah had rushed for at least 390 yards in each of its last four games, and had that total nearly cut in half. It still rushed for 206 yards, however, and had the game well in hand by halftime.

Todd threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Cone and then ran for a 38-yard score to put the Trojans ahead 12-0 less than two minutes into the game. They extended the lead to 28-0 at the end of the first quarter, and 34-6 by halftime.

Ryan Hodge finished with 118 yards and two TDs on seven carries. Todd had 88 yards and the two TDs on three carries, and completed 2 of 3 passes — both for touchdowns — for 104 yards.

Tallulah ran a total of 15 offensive plays and totaled 310 yards — an average of 20.7 yards per play. It scored seven touchdowns.

“We didn’t run that many plays, but we were very efficient tonight,” Barton said.