Quick start sparks Charleston victory

CHARLESTON — The Charleston Tigers celebrated their 100th playoff game in history with perhaps the shortest one they’ve ever played as well as maybe their most dominating one on Friday night.

The Tigers scored on five of six first-half possessions and were never threatened in a 48-6 win over Newport in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A playoffs at Alumni Field.

Charleston (12-1) earned a berth in its 13th semifinal and will travel to Rison, which beat Prescott on Friday.

Charleston also improved to 52-14 at home in the playoffs.

The Tigers were relentless from the start Friday.

“I’m really proud of the kids,” Charleston Coach Ricky May said. “The defense played their butt off. We couldn’t have played much better.”

Brandon Scott hit Brevyn Ketter for 54 yards and a touchdown just three plays into the game. A penalty negated the score, but it just momentarily delayed the inevitable. Three plays later, Scott hit Ketter again, this time from 26 yards out, and Kryton Ketter’s extra point put Charleston up, 7-0, just 1:50 into the game.

Reese Merechka recovered a fumble, which Hunter Little and Wiley Carroll forced, three plays later, and Charleston needed six plays to add to its early lead.

Brevyn Ketter scored on a 2-yard run for a 14-0 lead with 8:42 left in the opening quarter.

Charleston’s defense forced a punt, and the Tigers went up 21-0 on Brevyn Ketter’s 17-yard scamper with 4:46 left in the opening quarter.

“It was very key to have a good start,” May said. “If we don’t have to play catch up, it’s obviously to our credit. The kids did a real good job.”

The Tigers failed on a fourth-down try on the first play of the second quarter on their fourth possession but added three touchdowns within a five-minute span to push the lead to 42-0 at the half.

“It’s not how we saw it playing out, but we knew what we were running into,” Newport Coach Brian Reardon said. “I felt like we could have played a better game, but they jumped on us. When you jump on somebody sometimes, you’ve got to get out of your game plan and you start doing silly stuff and wheels fall off. It’s a great team and a well-coached team.”

Scott tossed a short pass to Merechka to the right side for a 7-yard touchdown with 7:45 left and Bryton Ketter added a 2-yard scoring run for a 35-0 cushion after Scott had an amazing 22-yard run that started to the left side and ended up on the right side of the field at the 2.

Three plays later with Newport (9-4) backed up at the 5, Carroll crashed through the line and sacked Newport quarterback Dejai Marshall, who fumbled in the end zone. Senior defensive lineman Dale Smith pounced on the loose ball for a touchdown with 2:44 left in the half for a 42-0 lead.

Eli Huck scored on a 9-yard run with 2:32 left in the third quarter for a 48-0 lead.

Newport scored on the fourth play of the fourth quarter on a 78-yard pass from sophomore Demetric Denton to Isiah Kendall for its lone score.

Charleston had 37 plays in the first half for 248 yards with Scott nine times for 67 yards and completing 10-of-15 passes for 108 yards.