By Robert Wilson
Lance Pogue got his first victory as Brandon’s head football coach Friday night and he did it the way he has won the majority of his games in his successful coaching career.
By running the ball and playing solid defense.
Despite not having his top running back – junior Tyson Robinson, one of the running backs in the country who was out nursing a hamstring injury – Pogue got plenty of rushing yards from the duo of converted defensive back-wide receiver Preston Ashley and senior wingback CJ Campbell, Jr., and a stingy defense to defeat Madison Central 17-7 in a MHSAA Class 7A non-region matchup between two of the top 10 teams in Mississippi before an estimated 5,000 at Madison Central’s Jungle in Madison.
Brandon – ranked No. 7 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – bounced back from last week’s 36-15 loss to defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Tupelo in a rematch of last year’s state 7A state title game in the season opener at Brandon. It was the first time Brandon had beaten Madison Central at Madison Central since a 14-7 win in 2018.
Madison Central – ranked No. 5 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – dropped to 1-1. The Jaguars defeated Pearl 20-6 in a non-region 7A game last week in the season opener.
Robinson – rated the No. 4 running back and the No. 42 player in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 Sports who has 19 offers, including 10 for the SEC – had 74 yards on 12 carries last week against Tupelo. Pogue decided to hold him out of this game Friday night, but his teammates took up the slack for him.
Brandon trailed 7-0 at halftime but outscored Madison Central 17-0 in the second half.
Brandon sophomore running back Travion Washington – who plays linebacker and is used on short yardage situations – scored on a run on fourth and inches with 1 minute, 6 seconds to play in the third quarter for a 7-7 tie.
Then, Brandon got a defensive score when senior defensive back Elijah Morey intercepted a pass and returned it 45 yards for a TD for a 14-7 Brandon lead with 10:17 to play in the fourth quarter.
Brandon senior Jase Eldridge added a 28-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead with 1:41 to play.
Brandon’s defense kept Madison Central out of the end zone in the second half.
Campbell had 75 yards on 12 carries, Ashley had 52 yards on 13 carries. Washington scored on his only carry.
Pogue was pleased with his team’s performance and his first win as the Bulldogs’ coach. He improved his career record to 247-71, a 77.7 percent winning percentage (one of the best in Mississippi history for coaches with 200 career wins) in 25 seasons, including a 126-17 record (88.1 percent winning percentage, five state titles and one national championship in 10 seasons at South Panola.
“It was a good win for us,” said Pogue, who replaced Sam Williams, who won 45 games and had three state runner-up finishes in four seasons, before leaving to be the head coach at UMS Wright Prep, a private school in Mobile, Ala. “It was tough last week. Man, it was so hard. It got away from us. I was proud of our guys coming back this week. We had the same feel as last week at halftime. We outplayed them in the first half but nothing show for us. We fought hard to come back and scored 17 points in a row. Since we didn’t have Tyson, it was running back by committee. They all ran well and our defense played great. Madison couldn’t run the ball much and they struggled to throw it.
“I’ve always said the way to win is to run the ball and stop the run on defense. We are going to have some tight games. When it’s tight you’ve got to find a way to win. I was impressed with that about our team. I saw some physical toughness tonight. We had some last week but nothing to show for it. We took some steps in the right direction tonight. We have a tough schedule but we are going to build off this win. Our front seven on defense played well. They were physically tough as a whole group. We gave up only one big play, about a 40-yard pass when a corner lost his vision over there. It was big to bounce back with confidence and belief so we can move forward. I told the team you’ve got to keep fighting through the tough times and we did that tonight.”
Brandon junior quarterback Sladen Shack – also a member of the Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team along with Robinson, Ashley and senior offensive lineman Ayden Newell – completed 15 of 22 passes for 157 yards to compliment the running attack.
Madison Central got its only score when sophomore quarterback Tripp Smith scored on a 9-yard run in the second quarter.
“Defensively, I thought we played well against a really good football team,” said Madison Central coach Toby Collums has a 40-14 record (75.5 percent winning percentage) in his fifth season and won a state title in his first year in 2021 as the Jaguars head coach. He was named the Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year in 2020 when he led Northwest Rankin to a turnaround season and to a second-round playoff victory for the first time since the school opened in 1981. “Offensively, we did not. Our inexperience on offense was evident last night. Hats off to Brandon, they’re a very good team.”
