SHAW - Calhoun County rarely returns from the Delta with a win in the playoffs, but the Vardaman Rams defied those odds with a 33-20 road win over Shaw in the opening round of the Class 1A North State playoffs thanks to an impressive 20-point effort in the fourth quarter.

Vardaman (8-3, 5-2 - #3 seed Region 1-1A) trailed 20-13 heading into the final quarter of play when Cody Jenkins hit Donta Walker for a 54-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 20-20 after a successful extra point with 11:49 left to play.

Octavious McKinney picked off a Tevin Thomas pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown to put the Rams up 26-20 before Jenkins found Lakreston Ewing for an 11-yard scoring strike to give Vardaman a 13-point cushion with 1:05 left in the game.

Chris Armstrong scored on a 6-yard run in the first quarter and Jenkins added a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to pull the Rams to give the Rams a 13-12 halftime lead.

Shaw (6-4, 5-2 - #2 seed Region 2-1A) scored the only points in the third quarter when Faraji Robinson hauled in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Thomas and converted the two-point conversion when Thomas completed a pass to Corderious Shepherd.

The victory puts Vardaman into the second round of the Class 1A North State playoffs against the Coffeeville Pirates.

Coffeeville (8-4, 4-3 - #4 seed Region 2-1A) picked up a 15-12 win over Smithville (10-1, 7-0 - #1 seed Region 1-1A) this past Friday night

The Pirates went into the final week of the regular season as the number two seed in Region 2-1A before suffering a 36-34 loss to Shaw that sent on the road as the number four seed.

Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Carter Field.

The winner of the game will take on the winner between Durant and Okolona next week in the Class 1A North State Championship game.