Tanner Hill understands that for Ridgeland to be all it can be this football season, he has to make some big plays.
The senior quarterback did just that Friday night in a wild 53-28 home win over Region 6-AAAA rival Heritage, throwing for 193 yards and three touchdowns while adding 85 yards and two scores on the ground.
After the Generals (1-4, 0-1) dominated the first quarter on the way to a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter, the Panthers (2-2, 1-0) scored 33 points before halftime to blow the game open.
“It was nice to see the perimeter game open up for us, because it hasn’t up until tonight,” Ridgeland coach Cortney Braswell said. “It’s good to see Tanner come into his own tonight. He’s starting to understand the concepts of what we want to do, and it’s going to be fun to see him continue to progress.
“They did a really good job of controlling the ball in the first quarter. We didn’t do a good job of getting them off the field on third down. However, our kids responded and forced some turnovers and gave ourselves a boost.”