South Pike has been lauded as one of the best 4A teams in the state coming into the 2019 season. Friday night on King Field at Brookhaven High the Eagles looked like world-beaters as they ran over, around, and past the Panthers in taking a 42-2 win.

South Pike senior quarterback Dontavious Turner is a Southern Miss commit that has another gear when he tucks the ball to run. On the outside he has senior receiver Alex Adams who is considered by one publication to be one of the best 12 high school players in the state. Defensive end Brandon Dean is built like a brick house. Senior offensive line man Kelin Williams is huge. He’s a massive 6-foot-7, 375-pound left tackle. Junior Cameron Reynolds lines up all over the field and is electric with the ball in his hands.

The Eagles are big, fast, and strong. They’re especially good when they have a short field and that’s how they started the first drive of the game. Brookhaven received the opening kick and went 3-and-out on their first possession. It took only three plays for South Pike to drive down and get their first score on a pass from Turner to Reynolds.

On their next drive it was another Turner to Reynolds connection that put SP up 14-0. Early in the second quarter Turner ran in from four yards out to grow the lead to 20-0, which would be the halftime score.

Brookhaven had two scoring chances in the second quarter that could have tightened the game up. Using runs from seniors JQ Edwards and Byrion Robinson, the Panthers drove down to inside the South Pike 10-yard line. Facing 4th-and-goal from the 3-yard line, South Pike stopped Robinson at the two to take over on downs.

Ole Brook got back inside the 10-yard line just before half. BHS got multiple shots at the end zone, but were turned back by the Eagles. Sophomore quarterback Dre Ross completed a pass to senior Jermario Hersey who was tackled on the 2-yard line as the halftime horn sounded.

BHS had done a great job bottling up Adams in the first half, but the playmaker broke loose for a big play early in the third quarter. Catching a tunnel screen, Adams hit the sidelines and raced past the Panther defenders for a 65-yard touchdown catch that put SP up 28-0. From there the Eagles continued to pour on the points as a rolling clock was used late in the game.

“We made a lot of self-imposed mistakes,” said BHS coach Tucker Peavey. “We got the ball close a couple times in the first half and missed assignments hurt us. We’ve got a lot of little things that we’ve got to do better and we’ve got to learn how to tackle better. We have some things we’ve got to fix if we don’t want to have these same results.”

Brookhaven travels to Monticello next week for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Lawrence County Cougars on Friday. South Pike is in Meadville next week taking on Franklin County.