Jones’ legs help Saints win Selma-Dallas County Championship

By George L. Jones

The Selma Times-Journal

Justin Moore-Jones’ name wore out the Memorial Stadium public address system Friday night.

And his legs wore out the Dallas County defense.

The big, bruising back ran through and around defenders for 191 yards and three touchdowns to help Selma beat Dallas County 56-13 in the Selma-Dallas County Championship.

On the Saints’ opening possession of the second half, Jones was the only person besides the quarterback to touch the ball on a drive that began on the Dallas County 49-yard line. He carried the ball seven consecutive times, the last one an 8-yard touchdown. He also ran in a two-point conversion to give Selma a 22-13 lead.

Jones would have had one more touchdown were it not for a holding call that negated his 30-yard scoring run in the first quarter.

Running back Anthony Caver accounted for all the points the Hornets (1-9) scored in the ball game, all of them coming in the first half.

DCHS capitalized on a fumble by Selma’s Darryl Parker two plays into the game.

On the very next play, Caver skipped out of tackles and ran 68 yards for a 7-0 DCHS lead.

Selma came right back and scored on the ensuing possession, giving Jones the ball for a 3-yard score. A two-point play put the Saints (4-6) ahead 8-6 with 7:36 left in the first quarter.

With 8:34 left in the second, Justin Brown found receiver Keedrick Woods on a screen pass, and Woods went 23 yards for the score and a 14-7 lead after a failed two-point try.

The Saints led 14-13 at halftime, but only because they did everything possible to shoot themselves in the foot. They lost six fumbles to DCHS, and Brown threw one interception.

As bad as the Saints were handling the ball, the Hornets were almost equally as bad at capitalizing. DCHS constantly got prime field position, but couldn’t squeeze any more points out of it.

One more forced turnover was taken away from DCHS when what appeared to be a tipped pass and interception by defensive end Dillan Cooper was ruled an incompletion.

The Hornets finally broke through for another score when Winston Bearden picked Brown off with about four minutes to play in the first half.

Randal Hamilton hit Caver with a 52-yard pass with 3:38 to play, but a missed extra point sent the Hornets into the locker room down by one.

Selma’s disappointing performance in the first half must have awoken a sleeping giant in the locker room.

The Saints came out running at DCHS and never let up.

Keaton Spears, the other half of Selma’s quarterback tandem, followed Jones’ score by hitting Woods on a 29-yard play. Tobias Wilson ran in a conversion to make Selma’s lead 30-13 with 5:36 left in the third.

Selma recovered a fumble on the Hornets’ following possession and got more points out of it.

Jones had his number called again and rumbled across the goal line for a 4-yarder with 1:55 left. A failed two-point try made it a 36-13 game.

Selma added three more scores in the game on a 36-yard touchdown from Spears to Demario Mills and a pair of touchdown passes by Brown.

Brown’s 75-yard hookup with Patrick Bonner gave Selma a 50-13 lead with 8:41 to play.