CRAWFORD — Penalties were the only things that could slow the visiting Class 4A North Pontotoc High School football team on Friday night at Class 1A East Oktibbeha County High School.
Unfortunately, the Titans made most of the clock-stopping mistakes.
The dominance East Oktibbeha”s defense established in its first two games all but disappeared Friday night in a 55-0 loss coach Randy Brooks said was “humbling.”
The Vikings struck early after a costly offsides penalty against the Titans on third and long breathed new life into a stalled drive. Quarterback Caleb Mills dumped a short pass over the middle to leading scorer Mitchell Cunningham for a 21-yard gain just outside the Titans goal line. One play later, Cunningham sliced through the defense for the score, the first of several on the night with 6 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
With that, North Pontotoc (3-0) were off to the races.
East Oktibbeha (2-1) held the Vikings to just seven points in the first quarter, but 1:45 into the second quarter, Mills floated a 21-yard touchdown pass to his wide receiver to extend the lead to 13-0.
After a Titan drive failed to answer on four straight plays, Cunningham added another touchdown run, sprinting 25 yards through the middle of the field with 9:55 to go in the half. A two-point conversion bumped the lead to 21-0.
One of the few bright spots for the Titans came when wide receiver Terrence Rice took the snap while in motion, weaving his way back and forth down the field for a 34-yard gain. However, missteps and blown blocking assignments cost the offense, as the drive stalled and went backward, including a loss of 2 yards on fourth down.
The Titans fought to hold the Vikings out of the end zone, but with 51 seconds left in the first half, Cunningham broke through for another 10-yard score. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty forced a long two-point attempt which failed, and the score at the half remained 27-0 in the visitors” favor.
The usually-stingy Titans second-half defense had no answers in the third quarter, as North Pontotoc added 21 more points for a 48-0 lead, punctuated by a 61-yard flea-flicker toss back to a wide open Mills with 1:32 remaining in the quarter.
The Vikings added one more score in the fourth quarter for the final margin, but Brooks suggested after the game that his team was done long before the final tally.
“I don”t feel like they were 55 points better than us,” Brooks said. “They”re a good team, well-disciplined and well-coached, but we didn”t come out to play.
“This was a humbling game for us. We were looking in newspapers, and reading how great we were in two games. They needed this to know we have a long way to go.”
Brooks said he was not happy with practices Monday and Tuesday, and warned his players they could see such a lopsided score. He said this game was a huge lesson.
“We thought we were better than we really were,” he said. “Next week, we start fresh.”
Next week, East Oktibbeha will host Sebastopol (1-1) coming off a win and a bye-week in a division matchup.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.