Calhoun City completed an unbeaten season in Region 4-2A by defeating Winona 35-14 last Friday night.
Brieton Sykes showed why he’s the best player in the region when he led the Wildcats with 248 yards rushing and three touchdowns. while also passing for another score.
“The line came out blocking hard, it was senior night, we just did what we had to do,” Sykes said.
He opened the scoring with a 12 yard touchdown run and successful 2-point conversion. He would then throw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Keshun Parker for a 14-0 ‘City lead.
After Winona cut the lead to 14-7 in the second quarter. Sykes led the Wildcats down the field with runs of 28 and 32 yards and then Jesse Nabors recorded the score on a 10-yard run.
Winona closed the gap to 20-14 by the end of the first half, but Sykes stretched the lead to 28-14 with a 2-yard scoring run in the third quarter. He would add an 11-yard touchdown for the 35-14 final.
“We played really hard, especially the defense and were really focused tonight,” Sykes said. “We executed well.”
Nabors and Keshun Parker led the defense with 14 and 12 tackles respectively.
“We’ve reached every goal on our list at this point. We had a winning season. We won the region.
Now our next goal is north half,” Calhoun City Coach Perry Liles said. “I feel like our path to do that is good.”
Calhoun City will open the postseason Friday at home against East Union. With a win, they would advance to face the Strayhorn-West Bolivar winner in the second round. They would host Strayhorn if they won or go on the road to West Bolivar.
Coach Liles said he believes his team is peaking at the right time.
“We’ve gotten a lot better physically and mentally and we’ve handled things a lot better this year and are getting to full speed going into the playoffs.”