Football Recap: Tupelo Takes Down Germantown in a Playoff Battle

It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Tupelo had no problem doing just that on Friday. They came out on top against the Germantown Mavericks by a score of 35-28. Winning may never get old, but the Golden Wave sure are getting used to it with their eighth in a row.

Tupelo got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Jaeden Hill out in front who rushed for 158 yards and a pair of touchdowns on only 13 carries. Hill's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 120 rushing yards. Zacoryian Baskin also helped with two scores in total.

They were just one part of a punishing run game: Tupelo was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 397 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 222 rushing yards every time they've taken the field this season.

Kaiden Buchanan

Total Tackles

11/21/25 vs Germantown	11
11/14/25 vs Starkville	3
11/06/25 @ DeSoto Central	4
10/30/25 vs Lewisburg	4
10/24/25 vs Horn Lake	7
+ 8 more games

Tupelo's defense stepped up as well, laying out King White six times. In that department, Kaiden Buchanan was the leader with three sacks. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 5.1 total tackles per game. Another thorn in Germantown's side was Tyson Hunter, who picked up a sack, forced one fumble, and made 15 total tackles (2.0 for loss).

Several Mavericks players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was White, who threw for 129 yards and two TDs, and also punched in one touchdown on the ground. White's passing game has become a key predictor of Germantown's success: the team is 7-2 when his passer rating is 100 or higher, but only 1-2 otherwise. Lawson Branson helped White out on the ground, rushing for 47 yards and one score, while also catching one TD.

Tupelo's win bumped their record up to 12-1. As for Germantown, the loss snapped their winning streak at four games and leaves them with a 8-4 record.

Coming up, Tupelo will challenge Oxford at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 832 yards in their previous games. Germantown does not have any more games scheduled as of now.