MERIDIAN —
Meridian High knew it had to win Friday night and responded in kind.
The Wildcats took advantage of a slew of Terry miscues early and hammered the host Bulldogs 41-0 at B.C. Lee Field.
Needing a win to keep its playoff hopes alive, the Wildcats (7-3 and 3-3 in Division 3-6A) also got the kind of results they could only dream about elsewhere in the district. With Brandon's 37-24 win against Natchez and Hattiesburg's 21-14 win against Oak Grove, all the Wildcats need now is a win at Forest Hill next week to return to the state playoffs.
With that win, Meridian would be the third seed with Brandon and Hattiesburg playing for the second seed and the loser getting the fourth seed. The Oak Grove-Natchez winner will miss out on the postseason due to tiebreakers.
First though, MHS took care of business Friday. The Wildcats' Andrew Bator recovered a Terry fumble on the first play of the game and two plays later, Austin Holt capped a 17-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run just 41 seconds into the game.
After forcing a three-and-out, Meridian scored again when Boderick Oliver blocked a Terry punt and recovered in the end zone. Following the extra point, MHS led 13-0 with 9:51 left in the first quarter. Oliver struck again moments later, blocking another Bulldog punt following a three-and-out. Holt finished off the drive at the 6:48 mark of the quarter with a 3-yard run.
The Wildcats tacked on one more score in the quarter as J-Mar Smith and Richard E. McQuarley hooked up on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 2:49 left to make it 27-0.
Meridian, which gained 120 of its 224 yards of offense in the first half on the ground, moved ahead 34-0 on a 1-yard run from Ed Glenn early in the second quarter. With less than a minute to go until halftime, Holt found the end zone for a third time, this time from 3 yards out.
Terry managed only 32 yards in the first half and neither team did much after intermission with a running clock.
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Wildcats roll, win away from playoff berth
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