Mitchell County rolls past Baconton Charter

CAMILLA — Somewhere during the middle of the second quarter, you got the feeling that Mitchell County began to think about Pelham Friday night.

The Eagles’ game with Baconton Charter was in the bag after Mitchell County built a 36-point halftime advantage and cruised to an easy 42-0 rout of the Blazers at Centennial Stadium.

Mitchell County (8-1, 7-1 Region 1-A) will visit Pelham in its regular-season finale next Friday in a winner-take-all contest for the region crown.

Kobe Butler ran for two scores and added a 2-point conversion run, while quarterback Ken’Trevious Williams tossed three touchdown passes to Demetrius Jones to help Mitchell County put the game on ice in the first two quarters.

“Of course it was hard for us not to think about next week,” Jones said. “But we stayed focused as a team and we came away with a win tonight.”

Jones went wild, catching touchdown passes of 48, 36 and 24 yards. Williams also hit Rodney Jones on a 2-point conversion pass, while Malik Barnes scored on a 2-point conversion run.

With the exception of allowing two first-half first downs, it was a near flawless half for the Eagles. The second half was played under a running clock.

Baconton (1-8, 0-8) didn’t have a score but its defense came up with a pair of solid plays. CJ Everson intercepted a pass on Mitchell County’s opening drive of the second half to prevent a score. Then late in the third quarter, Stone Pinson recovered a fumble.

Kentrel Williams’ 20-yard run with 6:31 left in the game was the only scoring in the second half.

Mitchell County couldn’t have picked a better time to shine before its final game against arch-rival Pelham. Unlike in past seasons when the two Mitchell County rivals played in different classifications, both are in the same region.

And it will mean more than just bragging rights.

“To be honest, everyone knew what was coming up next week,” Mitchell coach Larry Cornelius said. “In general, I’m very proud of Region 1-A. Right now, it looks like we may get five teams from our region into the playoffs. I think that is tremendous. And we’re about to get some exposure going into the postseason.

“Both teams (Mitchell, Pelham) have basically qualified for the playoffs and this is about bragging rights and playoff seedings.”