Flomaton High School wrapped up its 2019 regular season Thursday night with a 22-8 win at Southern Choctaw and now a new season begins this Friday night when the Hurricanes host Opp in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs in the first step toward another trip to the state finals in Auburn.
Flomaton (9-1) and Opp (4-6) will kickoff at 7 p.m.
Opp and Flomaton played in a preseason jamboree on Aug. 23 that involved halves of starters and reserves. However, Flomaton head coach Doug Vickery said that was a long time ago.
“We are a little bit familiar with each other but that was a few months back,” Vickery said. “Things change, teams develop and get better in certain areas.”
Vickery also said his team is not looking past Opp and its 4-6 record.
“They have a good football team,” Vickery said. “Regular season records don't count any more. We're all 0-0 heading into Friday. You can bounce back from a loss in the regular season but you get bounced out of the playoffs with a loss now. We need to be firing on all cylinders.”
Flomaton had wrapped up the Class 3A Region 1 title the week before traveling to Southern Choctaw for a non-region matchup to close out the regular season. Vickery said his top priority was to get out of there without anybody getting hurt.
“You always want to win,” Vickery said. “But we understood this game didn't matter in terms of the playoffs. “We didn't want to get anybody hurt.”
Vickery said he was pleased with the way the team played, noting several starters didn't play and a lot of the younger players stepped up and played well.
“Our offensive line did a good job and some of our younger guys got to carry the ball,” Vickery said. “It was wet and cold but I felt we played good.”
Daquan Johnson didn't carry the ball but twice but earned his nickname 'Money' on both with touchdowns. He ended the night with 84 yards on two carries. Vickery said one of the touchdown runs was a pass play that fell apart and Johnson took off.
After a scoreless first quarter, Flomaton's Tank Franklin scored on a 1-yard run. A two-point try failed, but the Hurricanes led 6-0 with 11:01 left in the half.
Johnson scored on a 31-yard run with 2:25 left in the half and sophomore Jaxon Singleton carried the two-point try into the end zone for the 14-0 lead, which is how the half ended.
Johnson scored on a 53-yard touchdown run to open the third quarter and Franklin carried the two-point try to give Flomaton a 22-0 lead.
Southern Choctaw's Jaleek Nelson cracked the scoreboard for the Indians on a 36-yard touchdown run with 2:09 left in the third and then carried the two-point try into the end zone for the final margin of 22-8.
Flomaton ended the night with 233 yards rushing on 33 attempts and did not attempt a pass. Southern Choctaw rushed 27 times for 136 yards and had no pass completions on one attempt.
Both teams lost two fumbles on the wet field.
Franklin picked up 82 yards on 14 carries for the Hurricanes and Sam Smith had 25 yards on five carries.
