Brayson Morson couldn’t be stopped. Neither could River Oaks.

It was a strange confluence of events that created a perfect football storm of offense, points and possibly records.

Morson rushed for 402 yards and eight touchdowns in Tallulah Academy’s wild 82-48 victory over River Oaks last Friday. It’s not certain whether his totals are a school record, but they were certainly odd and eye-popping.

Ryan Hodge also ran for eight touchdowns in a 92-50 win vs. North Sunflower Academy in the 2015 season opener. Hodge had 350 yards on his touchdowns alone, but his exact yardage total is unknown.

“If it’s not the top, it’s second,” Tallulah Academy coach Bart Wood said of Morson’s performance. “The game that Ryan Hodge had, it was 92-50. It was like this one, where it was one of those things where we had to score.”

Although Tallulah (7-3, 2-2 MAIS District 2-1A) never trailed against River Oaks after Hayes Hopkins’ 26-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, it was never quite able to put River Oaks (3-6, 2-2) away, either. Morson, a senior running back, had two short touchdown runs in the first half to help the Trojans take a 28-16 halftime lead.

Then, in the second half, the offenses took over and Morson took off.

Tallulah and River Oaks combined for 12 touchdowns and 84 points in the last two quarters. Ten of the touchdowns covered 30 yards or more. Tallulah’s lead was never less than 20 points, but it also never surpassed the 35-point margin that would trigger a running clock. That meant the game was just close and competitive enough that the Trojans couldn’t afford to let off the gas.

River Oaks quarterback Jake Stanley completed 20 of 37 passes for 415 yards and six touchdowns.

“They scored on one play, then we scored on one play, then they scored on one play. If we hadn’t scored, it would’ve been a two-possession game,” Wood said. “You never could get that breaking point where you could sit down and relax.”

Morson scored six of Tallulah’s seven touchdowns in the second half. He had runs of 49, 45 and 56 yards in the third quarter, and 70, 48 and 55 yards in the fourth. He finished with 18 carries.

“It was just all of a sudden, we gave him the ball and they weren’t stopping him. It was kind of crazy,” Wood said.

Wood added that an unhearalded freshman, Denton Ray, was pivotal in Morson’s big night. Ray was recently promoted from the junior high team to varsity and played in Morson’s linebacker spot on defense.

Ray finished with six tackles, two sacks and four tackles for loss. His outstanding performance allowed Wood to play Morson only on offense, rather than both sides of the ball, and kept him a bit fresher later in the game.

“(Ray) stepped up and played in Brayson’s spot and gave me the ability to do that. I’m going to have to do that again,” Wood said with a laugh.

Tallulah Academy will finish its regular season this Friday night at 7, at home against Claiborne Academy (3-6, 1-3). The Trojans will secure the No. 5 seed for the MAIS Class 1A playoffs with a victory, which would give them a home game next week against the No. 12 seed — most likely Hebron Christian or Marvell Academy.