Jaylin Coleman never thought about taking a knee once he snagged Lawson Gunn’s floating duck two yards in his own end zone.

By the time he hit the 5-yard line, his own 5-yard line, there was no turning back.

Coleman’s third interception return for a touchdown and three Taye Gatewood touchdown passes were more than enough as Southside routed Little Rock Central, 49-16, at Rowland Stadium.

“As soon as I caught the ball, I knew coach would be yelling for me to get down,” Coleman said. “I knew I had to score.”

Coleman’s 100-yard interception return (it would be 102 according to NCAA rules) was the dagger coach Jeff Williams’ team has longed for this season.

“We were playing deep coverage, and once he (Gunn) let go of the ball I knew he had overthrown it,” Coleman said. “I was just going to run and go get it. I looked to the right and Darin (Davenport) was the lead blocker for me, so I took off.”

After playing a bit sloppy in the first quarter, and hurting their own cause with a personal foul penalty that helped give Central good field position, Southside closed out the first half with three touchdowns in the final 5½ minutes to set up a winner-take-all first round home playoff game with Northside this week.

“We’ve been talking all year long about starting fast and finishing strong, and this young man (Coleman) helped us finish it,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “I was hoping we might block a punt or make a play, and he (Coleman) makes a fantastic play. If that’s not the Yarnell’s ‘Play of the Week’ I don’t know what would be.”

Senior Ricardo Savoy, who set the tone early on two touchdown runs, put the Mavericks up 7-0 with a 43-yard jaunt with 9:44 left in the first quarter.

Central responded with a 57-yard scoring drive. The Tigers’ touchdown march included a 25-yard pass on fourth-and-three from midfield.

Southside extended its lead to 14-6 on the first play of the second quarter when Savoy darted 36 yards for a touchdown. He finished the first half with 88 yards rushing on 11 carries.

Gatewood threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Tyrese Solomon to extend the lead to 21-6 with 5:25 left in the half.

The Mavericks’ defense set up the next score. Senior Luke Richardson’s sack of Gunn on third down and Davenport tackled punter Keener Baker on the next play at the Tigers’ 12, setting up Gatewood’s next touchdown pass — a 13-yard strike to Solomon with 2:07 left in the half.

Coleman’s interception return gave the Mavericks a 35-6 halftime lead.

Gatewood scored from a yard out halfway through the third quarter and he threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jay Washington to cap the scoring with 2½ minutes left to play in the third quarter.

“It was a grind-it-out game,” Williams said. “You’ve got to give Central a lot of credit; they didn’t quit and kept playing. We’re just happy to get the ‘W’ and go on and play Northside.”

Gatewood finished with 181 yards passing and the three scores. Solomon caught six passes for 91 yards and the two scores.
