Unfortunately for South Pittsburg’s football team Friday night at Coalfield, the Pirates let loose of the ball three times in the first half for turnovers.
Fortunately for them, however, their senior running back, Kahlil Mitchell, broke loose even more times in the Pirates’ 43-22 win in the Class 1A semifinals.
He scored on touchdown runs of 28 yards, 48, and 43 in the first half, and from 1 and 38 in the second half.
“He had a great night,” said his coach, Tim Moore. “He carried the load on offense and he did well on defense.”
Also letting loose were tempers, as numerous penalties were called late in the game, and both benches emptied temporarily with just over two minutes left. After the game, the South Pittsburg players went off the field without shaking hands at the order of coach Moore.
“Coach Moore said he couldn’t take a chance on shaking hands,” Coalfield coach Keith Henry said. “He was afraid something might happen, and I’m sorry for that.
“It was a hard fought game,” he added. “South Pittsburg’s got a great team and great tradition.”
Coach Moore said it was just one of those games that became too intense.
“Tempers got to flaring and sometimes in a highly contested game that will happen,” he said.
South Pittsburg (12-1), who will play Union City Friday in the state championship game, got on the scoreboard early with Mitchell’s first TD run, but Coalfield came right back down the field, with Ryan Hill passing to Zach Wilkins for a 3-yard TD to make the score 7-6.
South Pittsburg then followed with another sustained drive, but Tennessee commitment Zach Stewart of the Morgan County school near Oak Ridge recovered a Pirate fumble at the Coalfield 1-yard line.
In the second quarter, the Yellow Jackets recovered another fumble, but could not capitalize again. They also lost two fumbles themselves before the half.
Midway through the third quarter, after South Pittsburg built a 21-6 halftime lead, Mitchell scored again from the 1, but he had to work harder than on his long runs in eluding the grasp of a would-be Coalfield tackler.
On Coalfield’s subsequent possession, Ryan Hill had a 2-yard quarterback sneak and Zach Wilkins ran for two points to cut the score to 28-14. However, the real drama came after the plays, as Coalfield lineman Benson Napier had to be helped from the field with a leg injury, and South Pittsburg defender Kyan Mitchell was ejected for two consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
But Jujuan Lankford put the game out of reach for South Pittsburg with a 1-yard run late in the third. The two-point conversion by Darnez Fitzgerald made the score 36-14.
In the fourth, Brett Keener of Coalfield (8-4) scored from the 6 before Mitchell completed the scoring for South Pittsburg.
“It was a good win,” coach Moore said. “But there were way too many penalties. We’ve got to cut that out before next week in the championship game.”
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