As part of Ridgeland's Big Play Brigade, Markeith Montgomery is the wild card.
The junior, known as "Butter," can strike from anywhere, as he did Friday night in a 56-14 Region 6-AAAA rout of Heritage. Montgomery led a Panthers offense that ran up 535 total yards with 186 yards and three touchdowns on just 12 touches.
After running for a pair of scores in the first quarter - covering 20 and 7 yards - he capped his big night with an 80-yard sprint late in the third quarter.
"Coach told us to go out and make some big plays, so we did," Montgomery said with a shrug. "We proved again tonight that we can play with anybody. That region title is real close."
Ridgeland (6-0, 3-0) wasn't a one-man show, however. Junior Jalyn Shelton added 124 yards and a touchdown on the ground and added a halfback pass for a score - his third of the season - when he connected with Grayson Moore for 47 yards on a third-and-20 for a 21-0 lead.
Moore, who later was ejected from the game after garnering two personal fouls, had 104 yards on just five carries. His 81-yard run on the first half's final play, just after Heritage had closed to within 21-7, was a back-breaker. The Panthers were just trying to get to halftime when Moore broke off left end, shook off two tacklers at the 40 and sprinted away from the entire Heritage defense.
"Grayson said give him the ball right there, and we gave it to him," Montgomery said. "That play built our intensity, and there was no looking back."
Any hopes of a Heritage rally ended moments later when Stephon Walker picked up a fumble and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown. It was part of a strong Ridgeland defensive effort. After throwing for 430 yards a week ago, the Generals' prolific quarterback, Corbee Wilson, was limited to 105 on 10-of-20 passing.
"That run right before the half was definitely huge or us," Ridgeland coach Wesley Tankersley said. "We had gotten a couple of penalties there and given them a short field and they had scored, so to get that big run was huge. That and the fumble return early in the third kind of sealed things for us. They had to be more one-dimensional after that, and that helped our defense."
Of concern for Tankersley, however, were the 11 penalties, including five personal fouls, and 148 yards assessed.
"As a coach, there's a fine line between being very intense and doing some dumb things," he said. "Tonight there were a couple of times we did some dumb stuff, and hopefully the kids will learn from this. It really is tough as a coach to try to teach kids to be as physical and tough as they can be and then to step back at times.
"But the kids will learn, we hope. This is a huge win in this region, and we have another big one next week on the road at Pickens."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress or call 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.