On the Wayne Turner eruption scale, Friday night's first-quarter "attention-getter" was somewhere between a volcano and an atom bomb.
The veteran Tyner coach is a master at such motivation, and in his 53rd playoff game since taking the Rams helm 27 years ago, the result was undeniable. Tyner overcame a slow start - with the not-so-subtle urging from Turner - to score the game's final 42 points in a 49-7 pasting of visiting Jackson County in the Class 2A first-round playoff matchup.
"When Coach T says pick it up the way he said it tonight, you better pick it up," quarterback Jaylen Bowens said. "It was not going to be a fun week of practice. Hopefully it won't be quite so bad now."
If it is not too brutal of a practice week, the Tyner team can thank Bowens along with defensive end Tyrique Henry for the bailout. Bowens threw two toucdown passes and ran for two scores, while Henry had three sacks and hit the Blue Devils quarterback on nine of the 11 passes he got off.
"After that first drive, we just looked at each other and said that has got to stop," Henry said before adding, "And it did."
Tyner (9-2) scored first on a 77-yard pass play from Bowens to Jeremiah Batiste - "Big Game Batiste," as Bowens calls him - on which Batiste simply out-jumped the defender. Jackson County (5-6) then proceeded to stir Turner's wakeup call with a 13-play, 75-yard drive to knot it at 7-all on Colby Long's 11-yard run.
"For the second week in a row we have started slow, and there is no excuse for that," Turner said. "It could be a fun of week of practice, no doubt."
After the coach's pep speech, the Rams got after it. Aside from the 75-yard drive, the Blue Devils were held to 13 offensive yards on nine possessions. Tyner twice forced fumbles (Tyon Young and Kamden Edwards recovered) and returned an interception 20 yards for the final score (by Aubrillius Martin).
Young added scoring runs of 10 and 3 yards to push it to 21-7 in the second quarter, and Tyner added two scores in the final two minutes of the half. Bowens kept on an eight-yard score and when Tyner got the ball back with 40 seconds left, he needed just 19 of those seconds to cover 60 yards, the final 46 coming on a pass to Jeremy Elston.
Young had 57 rushing yards on eight totes and Batiste caught three passes for 117 yards as Tyner outgained the Blue Devils 298-88 in offense.
"Batiste is big-play man," Bowens said. "He just tells me to throw it up there and not to worry about, so I don't.'
For Tyner, a perennial playoff power, it was the first home playoff game in 10 years. Next Friday the Rams will host Watertown (9-2), which beat Polk County on Friday.
"It was nice to be home, but we've got to do a better job protecting our turf than that first quarter," Turner said. "We got after it following that first drive, but we shouldn't have had to get them that motivated to do it."
Contact James Beach at sports@timesfreepress.com.