Tornadoes rolling through brutal schedule
By By Marty Stamper / staff writer
September 17, 2004
PHILADELPHIA Before the 2004 football season started, Philadelphia first-year head coach Brian Anderson described his team's opening five games as being "brutal."
However, three-fifths of the way through that stretch, it's been the Tornadoes administering the brutality.
After struggling early in their season opener with Choctaw Central, the Tornadoes turned a 3-0 halftime lead into a 40-0 blowout.
Week Two saw Philadelphia turn a fourth-quarter blocked punt into a 14-10 victory at West Lauderdale.
In the third week, the Tornadoes trailed crosstown rival Neshoba Central 19-14 with less than two minutes remaining and the ball on the Philadelphia side of the field.
Not only that, the Tornadoes were looking at fourth-and-14. Sixty-two yards later, the Tornadoes were celebrating a 20-19 victory and a 3-0 start.
The Tornadoes are tied for 10th place in this week's Associated Press Little 10 poll.
Leading Philadelphia's offense are Talmer Burnside with 205 yards on 45 carries, Tuntdrick Burnside with over 100 yards rushing, quarterback Porter Jordan, who has completed 19-of-37 passes for 357 yards and six touchdowns, and Jeremy Holmes with five receptions for 114 yards.
Defensively, Cameron Gates has 25 tackles, Jeremy Boler has 23, Chris Smith 22, Anthony Gray 21, Cody Tawater 18, and David Brackett 17.
This week was supposed to be a battle of Class 2A powers between Philadelphia and Taylorsville at Harpole Stadium on the PHS campus.
While the Tornadoes have lived up to, if not exceeded, their billing, the Tartars of Taylorsville have been an early-season flop as they come in with an 0-3 record.
Taylorsville has lost 23-0 to powerful Collins, 32-10 to potential Class 1A state champion Mize, and 26-0 to Lumberton.
Indeed, Taylorsville is one of the few schools that has beaten up on Philadelphia consistently, having won five of the six previous meetings. The teams faced off for the first time in the third round of the 1991 Class 2A state playoffs with the Tartars taking a 13-12 win at Philadelphia.
In 1992, Philadelphia headed to Smith County and came back with a 27-12 second-round playoff win.
Since then, the Tartars have won 42-3 in 1997, 31-7 in 1998, 17-7 in 2000, and 41-31 in last year's regular season shootout at Taylorsville.
Over the last 25 years, the Tornadoes have had only two losing seasons. During that same period, Philadelphia has made 14 playoff appearances and two bowl appearances. Their 3-0 mark thus far gives the Tornadoes a 485-249-20 record since 1934.
Next week's home game with Forest concludes the non-division portion of the schedule. The last five games shouldn't be nearly as tough as the first five.
