Monroe wins season opener in rain-soaked football game against Mitchell County

ALBANY — When there are tornadoes around, there is usually a lot of rain.

Maybe that explains the Thursday night downpour as the Monroe Golden Tornadoes opened the football season with a 21-14 win over Mitchell County at Hugh Mills Stadium.

“The kids played hard all night,” said Monroe head coach Lacey Herring. “That’s what we look for as coaches. I’m very proud of their effort. The rain grounded us in the second half and we have some things to clean up for next week. It’ll be a tough match against Cairo.”

There were some offensive highlights, but the story of the night had to be Monroe’s defense. An interception by Justin Lane set up one touchdown and a scoop and score play by Jaquan Maddox (he picked up a fumble and ran it in for a touchdown) added six more points for the Tornadoes. Later a group of Tornadoes sacked the Mitchell County quarterback in the end zone that gave Monroe its’ final two points. Monroe’s defense sacked the quarterback at least four times in the first half.

Monroe’s first score came less than three minutes into the game. After a scary start with a mishap with a snap and then a running play that went nowhere, quarterback Corey Randle threw a pass to his brother Camryn Randle that moved the Tornadoes up 30 yards to the 29-yard line. The Mitchell County defense pushed Monroe back to the 35, but moments late the Randle brothers connected again with a pass in the middle of the field for a 35-yard touchdown play.

Justin Lane picked off a pass from the Eagles to set up the next touchdown and Jordan Washington scored on a 13-yard run.

As the drenching rain continued, the Eagles moved down the field late in the third quarter with a long pass and then drove all the way to the two-yard line as the quarter ended. The Eagles were faced with a 4th and one at the two-yard line, but on the first play of the fourth quarter, Monroe was flagged for being offsides and the Eagles got a first down. Quarterback Ju’Derek Gee-Simmons dove into the line and across the goal line for the score.

Gee-Simmons scored Mitchell County’s other eight points with less than two minutes remaining in the game. The Eagles took advantage of Monroe’s issues on special teams to get the ball at the 24-yard line. A bad snap on fourth down had the punter diving for the ball and Mitchell County took over. Gee-Simmons put the ball into the end zone by running around the left side of the line and racing to the corner of the end zone for six, and then turned around and raced to the right side for the two-point conversion.

The Eagles attempted the onside kick, but Monroe senior Andrico Jackson covered the ball and Monroe held on for the win.

Monroe (1-0) will travel to Cairo next Friday night for a non-region matchup with the Syrupmakers. Mitchell County (0-1) will be at home against Worth County in a non-region game.

Joe Whitfield