JACKSON — On the final play of his high school football career, Mason Todd did something he’d waited his whole life for.

Tallulah Academy’s senior quarterback cleanly handled the direct snap from center, took two steps backward, and calmly bent one knee to the turf.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day, and an almost perfect season.

Todd completed 12 of 13 passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns, ran for 135 yards and two more scores, and led the Trojans to a 34-25 victory over Christian Collegiate in the MAIS eight-man championship game Thursday at Millsaps College.

“It’s one of the best feelings in the world, really. That’s what you dream about and do in the backyard when you’re a little kid,” Todd said.

In just its second year playing eight-man football, Tallulah Academy (12-1) reached the state championship game for the second time. Tallulah’s last state title came in 1992, when it played 11-man football and won the MAIS Class A championship.

Making this championship even sweeter was a dose of vengeance. The Trojans were blown out in last year’s title game, and then returned to win it. They also avenged their only loss of this season, having fallen 46-38 to Christian Collegiate in late September.

“It’s been a dream come true,” said Dakota Cone, a senior wide receiver who caught four passes for 133 yards and a touchdown on Thursday. “We’ve been working hard all year, and if there’s any game we wanted to win it’s this one. Not because it was a state championship, but because that was our only loss was to CCA. So it meant a lot to us.”

From 2004-13, Tallulah had one winning season. It has now won 21 of its past 24 games and is poised for a lot more success. There are only four seniors on the roster.

“We have a really strong team coming back. They’re only losing four of us. There’s not anybody on that team that can’t bring them back,” Cone added.

One of those departing seniors is Todd, who authored a storybook ending to his high school career. He threw two touchdown passes in the first half to stake the Trojans to a 12-0 lead, then kept them in front by making plays with his feet in the second half.

He ran for a 6-yard touchdown late in the third quarter before scrambling out of trouble and throwing a 25-yard TD pass to Taylor Antley early in the fourth to put Tallulah ahead 26-13.

Antley — a senior who scored his first touchdown of the season — provided some inadvertent comic relief on the play when he caught the ball at the 2-yard line and then stopped and held it straight up. He was wide open in the end zone, but had to come back across the goal line to catch the slightly underthrown pass. He lost track of where he was and had to scoot back a few steps to finish the play.

“I saw the ref and he didn’t throw his arms up. I sat there for a second and turned around and saw the end zone,” Antley said with a laugh. “Everybody thinks I was (showboating), but I was really going to throw the ball to the ref. He didn’t throw his hands up or anything. I figured it out eventually.”

Christian Collegiate (12-1) answered with a scoring drive, capped off by a 1-yard run by quarterback Devan Roberts, to get back within a touchdown. Roberts ran for 71 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 189 yards and a touchdown for the Bulldogs. In the first meeting with Tallulah, Roberts ran for 326 yards, threw for 250, and accounted for six touchdowns.

“We controlled the quarterback. He’s good enough to still make some plays here and there, but the main thing is we slowed that kid down,” Tallulah coach Bo Barton said. “The last time we played them he had over 500 yards total offense. I don’t know what he had tonight, but I know it wasn’t 500. We did a good job of containing him, and our defensive kids played their tails off.”

After Roberts scored, Todd had one last highlight-reel play up his sleeve.

After Ryan Hodge ran for a first down on fourth-and-1 from Tallulah’s 26-yard line, offensive coordinator Justin Bigham called a play that was drawn up at halftime.

Christian Collegiate had slowed Tallulah down after a fast start by keying on their guards on running plays. Realizing this, the coaching staff pulled the linemen to the right while Todd took the snap and sprinted left. The result was an open field with no defenders between Todd and the goal line. The quarterback sprinted 64 yards for a backbreaking touchdown and a 34-19 lead with 3:23 left in the game.

“That was a good call on Justin Bigham’s part. They were reading our guards, and at halftime he designed a play where we didn’t pull the guard, we pulled the tight end, and it messed with them. They overloaded the front and we faked it to Hodge and Mason went back the other way with the tight end pulling,” Barton said.

Christian Collegiate responded again, with a nine-play scoring drive capped by a 1-yard run by T.J. Clolinger with 1:11 left. It was the second touchdown of the game for Clolinger, who had 102 total yards.

Roberts’ two-point conversion pass was no good, however, and an onside kick attempt squibbed through Tallulah’s front line before going out of bounds. Tallulah took over near its own 30, and Todd took the snap for the kneeldown he and his teammates had spent so many years thinking about.

“This is the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s unforgettable, and I’m just glad I could experience it with my team,” Antley said. “When I first came here in ninth grade, we came from winning one game a year to state runner-up and state champs. So it’s amazing.”