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Porters Chapel's Carter White (5) follows his block while attempting to make it past a Central Private defender at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Carter White (5) attempts to make it past a Central Private defender at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Carter White (5) follows his block while on a run against Central Private at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Cameron Harvey (22) sacks the Central Private quarterback Austin Peairs during the game at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Carter White (5) sprints past Central Private defenders at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Tyrese Craft (10) sprints upfield on a kick-off return against Central Private at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Carter White (5) follows his block while on a run against Central Private at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's John Michael Wilkerson (6) makes a tackle on Central Private's Cole Averette at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's McKinley Skipper (78) tackles Central Private's Austin Peairs at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Cameron Harvey (22) sacks Central Private's Austin Peairs at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Tristan Pickering (4) draws back to through against Central Private at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's John Michael Wilkerson (6) attempts to break a tackle by a Central Private defender at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel defenders make a tackle on a Central Private player at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Porters Chapel's Tyrese Craft runs alongside blockers during the game against Central Private at Porters Chapel Friday(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Missed assignments on defense and an inability to sustain drives proved to be the downfall for Porter’s Chapel Academy on Friday, as it lost 41-0 to Central Private.

The Eagles (2-2) were coming off a dominant performance against Hillcrest Christian last week, when they gained 339 yards on the ground, but their offense failed to find any momentum against the Rebels (3-1).

PCA was held to only 155 yards of offense and turned the ball over four times. One of the turnovers was a fumbled punt return that set up a Central Private touchdown.

“We made too many mistakes,” PCA coach Blake Purvis said. “Offensively, defensively, on the front lines, in our second level on defense, we just made too many mistakes. Every one of them they capitalized off of them and made us pay for them.”

The Eagles had only four plays all night go for more than 10 yards, and on the few occasions when they were able to build momentum and begin to move the ball, an untimely penalty would set them back and kill the drive.

“We were opening up holes and we were getting yardage in chunks, but we would get a penalty and push ourselves behind the chains and force us out of our game plan,” Purvis said. “It was mistakes we made that killed ourselves.”

Central Private’s offense kept the Eagles’ defense off-balance throughout the game with its triple option attack. The Rebels took advantage of missed assignments and poor tackling to rack up 369 yards of offense, including 260 rushing yards.

The mistakes were on full display in the fourth quarter when Cole Averette scored on a 49-yard run 3:31 left. PCA had Averette stopped for no gain, but he managed to break multiple tackles and went down the left sideline for the score to put his team up 41-0.

“For the first time seeing that (the triple option) it is real hard to prepare for,” PCA defensive tackle McKinley Skipper said. “They got us a few times. Toward the end of the game we started catching on to it, but when the clock runs out, the clock runs out and we ran out of time. We caught on to it and we made a few good plays.”

The Eagles’ defense forced a three-and-out on the Rebels’ first possession of the game, but a PCA fumble gave Central Private the ball back at the PCA 39-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Kaleb Fontenot broke free up the middle for a 20-yard touchdown, his first of two on the night.

Central Private stretched its lead to 14-0 with 7:20 left in the second quarter when Trevor Tortorich found a gap and ran it in from the 14-yard line. The touchdown capped a 58-yard, nine-play drive that took more than four minutes off the clock.

The Rebels added their final score of the first half with three seconds left when Fontenot found Jace Pendravis wide open in the middle of the field for a 40-yard TD pass.

Central Private added another touchdown in the third quarter and two more in the fourth, including the run by Averette. Averette finished with 80 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.

“Without leadership, we would have fallen apart like we did the last two years and it would have been a basketball score up there,” Skipper said. “We had great leadership, we fought and we didn’t give up until that last final horn.”

The Eagles were without running back Glenn Alan Kittrell, who suffered a shoulder injury against Hillcrest. That forced much of the offensive load to fall on junior running back Carter White. He finished with 19 carries for 88 yards.

PCA’s best drive of the night came in the third quarter after Central Private took a 27-0 lead. The Eagles started at their own 16-yard line and marched to the Central Private 21 in 13 plays. The drive stalled there after taking more than six minutes off the clock as Central Private forced a fourth-and-6 and defensive back Blake Kolb picked off a pass by Tristan Pickering.

Humphreys Academy 46, Tallulah Academy 36

Defending MAIS eight-man football champion Tallulah Academy lost for just the fourth time since joining the division in 2014, to Humphreys Academy on Friday.

Humphreys scored 20 consecutive points in the first half to take a 34-14 lead, and then held on late.

Joshua Collins rushed for 151 yards and three touchdowns for Tallulah (2-1), and Parker Kivett threw two TD passes.

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