Dicenzo Miller Jr. scores 3 touchdowns to lead Wildcats past Morton

Jordan Little, left, amd Nicaya Baylor were named the Homecoming king and queen, respectively, at Kemper County High School’s homecoming Friday night.

Posted Tuesday, October 6, 2020 11:00 pm

By Steve Swogetinsky

The Kemper Messenger

SCOOBA – Dicenzo Miller Jr. scored three touchdowns and caught the winning two-point conversion to lead the Kemper County Wildcats over Morton 28-27 in prep football action on the East Mississippi Community College campus.

The Wildcats are off to their best start since the 2016 season when they captured the Class 3A state championship. They now stand at 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the Region 5-3A standings. The Wildcats and Morton, now 3-2, are in the same region with Forest, Southeast Lauderdale and Clarkdale.

The Wildcats led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter. Junior back Robert Jennings scored on a run to put the Panthers on the scoreboard first, 7-0.

Kemper County came back with Miller scoring on a four-yard run. Jamari Scott scored the two-point conversion and the Wildcats led 8-7 at the half.

Jamar Grace scored on a 55-yard TD pass play from Aaron Steele in the second quarter, Morton scored a touchdown and got a field goal from Adrian Torres, making the score 17-14 at the half.

Morton went up 24-14 on a long run by Jennings at the end of the third quarter.

Miller scored on a 45-yard run early in the fourth quarter to make the score 24-20 in favor of Morton, Torres kicked a field goal for Morton to put the Panthers up 27-20.

With three minutes left, Miller scored on a run. He then caught the two-point conversion from Steele and the Wildcats held on for the victory.

The Wildcats had 245 total offensive yards and 19 first downs, Kemper County had 174 rushing yards on 24 carries, and compiled 11-of-21 passes for 171 yards. They had two interceptions and were penalized four times for 25 yards.

Aaron Steele gained 54 yards on 13 rushes and had all of the Wildcats’ passing yards, giving him 225 total yards. Miller had109 yards on 10 carries. Grace had 119 receiving yards on six catches,

Ishmael Naylor had 11 tackles and one sack. Kentric Delk had three tackles and a sack.

The Wildcats are off next Friday night. They play again at Clarkdale on October 16. Morton will play Clarkdale next Friday night.

“We are kind of banged up and the week off is going to help,” Coach Ray Westerfield said, “Our two starting offensive tackles didn’t play this week because of injuries. We want to rest them and get them ready for the next game.

“We are going to spend this week working on us. There are areas where we need to improve,”