Before he left the game with an injury to his throwing hand, Canden Dallas tossed Pontotoc into the lead. And when the game was on the line, he came back to help the Warriors secure the win – and another trip to the postseason.

Pontotoc’s senior quarterback threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half and had nine consecutive runs in the final minutes to exhaust the clock as the Warriors defeated North Pontotoc 21-13 on Saturday to gain the third seed in Region 1-4A. Pontotoc finished the regular season with a 4-0 record at home. The game was rescheduled from Friday because of inclement weather.

Canden Dallas

Dallas, who completed 6 of 14 for 120 yards and two TDs in the first half, left the game late in the second quarter with a severe cut on his throwing hand. He was replaced by freshman Rashad Dixon, who also returns kicks for the Warriors (8-2, 3-2).

“I injured myself, gashed it wide open on the side of a helmet, and couldn’t throw,” said Dallas. “All I was really going to do was run.

“I just knew I had to bow up and run as hard as I could, to get the first down and keep the clock moving so we could get out of here,” said Dallas, who helped burn the final five minutes of the game with his runs. “I was excited and ran the ball hard.”

Pontotoc will travel to face Louisville, the second seed in Region 4, on Friday at 7 p.m. in the first round of playoffs. The Wildcats, winners of the Class 3A state championship the past two seasons, are tied for the state record with South Panola with seven titles.

The first half

Against North Pontotoc, the Warriors got all the points they needed on their first two possessions.

Randall Crayton took a pitch from Dallas and sped down the right sideline for a 24-yard score with 8:49 remaining in the first quarter. Crayton, a 5-foot-9, 160 pound junior, finished with 11 carries for 56 yards.

On Pontotoc’s next possession, Dallas connected with Crayton, who beat his defender and leapt for the grab on the right size of the end zone, for a 17-yard TD with 4:23 left in the opening quarter, to go ahead 14-0.

North Pontotoc, playing its first year in 4A, scored in the second quarter after a bad snap to Dallas on a punt set them up at Pontotoc’s 3-yard line. Joe Robbins ran it in for the score to keep the Vikings (6-4, 1-4), within 14-7 with 9:35 remaining until halftime.

Pontotoc drove 58 yards in six plays on its next possession to pull ahead 21-7, capped by a 43-yard scoring pass from Dallas to Jamar Elzie with 7:23 left in the second quarter.

Michael Bounds was good on all three PATs for Pontotoc.

Dixon, who relieved Dallas with just under four minutes left in the second quarter, tossed an interception in his only pass attempt in the first half, but completed 4 of 9 for 30 yards in the second half.

North Pontotoc was held to 18 yards of total offense in the first half, and was limited to 3 of 13 passing for two yards and two interceptions in the contest.

The fourth quarter

After a scoreless third quarter, North Pontotoc constructed a 14-play, 90-yard drive resulting in a 4-yard TD run by sophomore Shemiah Carter with 5:16 remaining in the fourth quarter. The extra-point attempt by Kyle Robbins was blocked by Pontotoc’s Blake Littlejohn.

“These kids fought their tails off today,” said first-year North Pontotoc head coach J.J. Plummer. “If we had of had a little bit more clock, who knows what could have happened.

“I told them at halftime to keep fighting, and they did,” Plummer added. “We gave ourselves a chance to win the football game, but we just didn’t stop them at the end.”

Dixon left with an injury, and Dallas returned to finish the game. The runs by Dallas moved the ball from Pontotoc’s own 35 – where Dixon had gone down - to the Vikings’ 24, running out the final 5:10 of the contest and sealing the win.

The fourth quarter

“We got in trouble today with the quarterback situation,” said Pontotoc head coach Charlie Dampeer. “Dixon is a ninth grader, and we only have certain things in with him, and Canden had a pretty good cut on his hand and couldn’t throw it, so we were trying to keep him out of the game.”

“The whole key to the game was we were able to run the quarterback isolation at the end of the game,” Dampeer added. “We were having some trouble and couldn’t do anything offensively the second half. They hung in there and made it interesting at the end.”

Brennan Tutor

While the teams enjoyed clear skies and sunshine for the daytime game on Saturday, they have both played the second half of the season on muddy playing surfaces.

“The field’s horrible and slippery, but the offensive line, at the end, we came out strong,” said Pontotoc’s offensive tackle, Brennan Tutor (6-4, 290), a senior. “We were still knocking people off the ball. We’re big and we’ve got power.”

Myles Snyder

Myles Snyder led North Pontotoc offensively with 10 carries for 38 yards.

“We shut them down completely the second half,” said Snyder, who plays both offense and defense and is one of more than two dozen seniors who helped the Vikings finish with back-to-back winning records. “The first half, I don’t guess we were ready, because we weren’t handling their passes good.”

“We had a winning season overall, but 4A was tougher than we thought,” Snyder said. “We knew Shannon and Itawamba would be tough, but we let New Albany slip by us, big time.”

Coach Plummer’s take

The Vikings, who finished 7-4 and reached the first round of the Class 3A playoffs in 2008, finished fifth in 1-4A. Both Pontotoc and North Pontotoc lost to Itawamba AHS and Shannon, ranked as the top two teams statewide in 4A for most of the season.

The losses by North to New Albany (42-20 on Oct. 16) and Pontotoc kept them out of the postseason.

“We proved to a lot of people that we can at least compete in 4A,” Plummer said.

“As far as the overall season, it’s great to have a winning season especially when you step up into a 4A district and to a much, much tougher schedule,” Plummer added.

“It’s always a huge positive note to end the season with a winning season and with a winning attitude. Certainly, we’re going to miss these seniors, and we’re losing a lot of them.”

The last meeting between the county rivals was also in a non-Friday game in 2006, when Pontotoc came from behind to beat North Pontotoc (28-12) in a Thursday night game (Aug. 31).

It was Pontotoc’s only win that season, in which it finished 1-9.