Porters Chapel’s usual first-half outburst never came on Friday. It never came in the second, either.

It didn’t matter. The end result was the same.

PCA used a smothering defense to compensate for a sputtering offense, holding Tallulah Academy to just 111 yards of offense in a hard-fought 10-0 first-round playoff win.

Tallulah, which had more than 2,500 rushing yards as a team entering the game, never got inside PCA’s 19-yard line. It had a six-minute drive in the second quarter and a four-minute drive in the third end without any points, and failed to get a first down on two late drives that started inside the PCA 30.

“We knew their game plan. We practiced way more on defense than we did on offense this week. They passed way more than they did on film, but they were in situations where they had to pass,” said PCA quarterback Clayton Holmes, who scored the game’s only touchdown on a 1-yard sneak in the second quarter. “Any time you win a ballgame, there’s nothing to be disappointed about. Any time you get that goose egg, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

For Tallulah, that sentiment covered the entire season. The Trojans went just 1-10 in 2007, and had won a total of 10 games over the previous four seasons. First-year coach Doug Branning, hired in late July, turned them into a playoff team, and had them on the brink of an upset against the top-ranked team in MPSA Class A. The Trojans finished the season with a 7-5 record, their first winning season since 2003.

“We’re proud to get to the playoffs. We came a long way from one win last year,” said Tallulah tailback Justin Horath, who ran for 54 yards on 21 carries on Friday. “We all came together. The coaches brought us together.”

PCA, meanwhile, advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season. They’ll host Huntington, a 44-24 winner over Newton Academy, in a second-round game next Friday. They’ll need to clean up a few things if they’re to keep playing beyond that.

PCA was penalized 10 times for 83 yards, committed three turnovers and had two punts blocked. A field goal attempt was also missed when four Tallulah players broke through the line, forcing kicker Jason Greer to cut his kick short and avoid a block. The Eagles, who averaged 38 points per game in the regular season, were held to a modest 233 yards of offense.

The Eagles managed to put together only one real scoring drive, going 52 yards in eight plays late in the first quarter. Holmes’ 1-yard quarterback sneak on the first play of the second quarter put PCA ahead 7-0. Midway through the third quarter, Tallulah turned the ball over on downs near midfield and PCA was able to turn it into a 32-yard field goal by Greer to make it 10-0.

“Obviously, we did not play our best game. Give Tallulah credit for that. They played hard. We made plays when we had to and got the job done,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. “A lot of it had to do with Clayton getting hurt in the first quarter. He pulled his quad, and he couldn’t run the football at all. That took half our offense away.”

PCA’s defense more than made up for the offense’s struggles.

They forced three turnovers in the first half and sacked Tallulah quarterback Jes Shivers six times. The last three sacks came in the fourth quarter on drives deep inside PCA territory.

After a blocked punt gave Tallulah the ball at the PCA 19, Shivers was sacked twice in the next four plays and the Trojans turned it over on downs. They got it back two plays later thanks to a PCA fumble, but went nowhere. Joe Borrello and Jacob Rachal sacked Shivers on fourth-and-5 from the PCA 21 with just over two minutes left, and the Eagles were able to run out the clock.

“We just absolutely did not block them,” Branning said. “Normally when we get inside the 30, we score. We couldn’t get anything going with any consistency.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com.