Desoto County Sports

Friday sports: Olive Branch holds off Saltillo comeback, Jags blank Tigers

Photo: Action from Friday’s DeSoto Central victory at Hernando. The Jaguars shut out the Tigers 34-0. (Mary Scott for desotocountynews.com)

Oct 25, 2024- The Olive Branch Conquistadors football team came back in a big way Friday night, posting a 35-28 victory over visiting Saltillo at Pool Field. The win comes one week after a 42-0 shutloss loss to Region 1-6A-leading Grenada, so the win and the number of points the Quistors scored had to make the team and coach Jason Russell smile.

Olive Branch freshman quarterback Thomas Heffner scored a pair of touchdowns in the victory. The Conquistadors held a 14-8 lead after one quarter, on scoring plays from Kylan Rhodes and Heffner to recover from an opening touchdown from Saltillo’s Eli Shannon on a 23-yard end around run.  

The Quistors added to the lead and took a 35-14 advantage into the locker room at halftime, as Heffner scored again, plus touchdowns from Jay Wells on a pass reception and a run from Brandon Perry of 33 yards. Saltillo scored on a nine-yard run from quarterback CJ Beasley.   

Eli Shannon scored twice more in the second half to get the Tigers within a touchdown, but the Olive Branch offense kept the football away from Saltillo to prevent giving them a chance to tie the contest.  

Heffner had to play a portion of the fourth quarter on the field hobbling after being injured and taken out for treatment. He had to continue since the other Olive Branch signal-caller Dominic Pupo was not in action after suffering a concussion in a loss last week at Grenada. 

With the win, the Conquistadors improved to 2-5 overall, 1-2 in Region 1-6A play. Saltillo drops to 2-7 overall and is also 1-2 in regional action.  

Prep football 

JUCO men’s soccer

  • Copiah-Lincoln 3, Northwest CC 1

JUCO women’s soccer

  • Northwest CC 6, Copiah-Lincoln 0

Statistics from the Horn Lake-Lewisburg football game

Bob Bakken

Bob Bakken provides content for DeSoto County News and its social media channels. He is an award-winning broadcaster, along with being a reporter and photographer, and has done sports media relations work with junior and minor league hockey teams. Along with his reports on this website, you will find this veteran media member providing sports updates and high school football play-by-play on Rebel 95.3 FM Radio.