STARKVILLE — Starkville High School football coach Jamie Mitchell already knew he wasn’t going to get much to evaluate watching the tape of his team’s victory against Lanier last week.
The one thing he noticed in the second half was the play of a sophomore his team will need later in the year to bolster its depth if it wants to be a contender in Class 5A, Region 2.
“When you look at our junior varsity team that went undefeated last season, we have a lot of faith that those kids can be very talented one day when we need them,” Mitchell said. “It was absolutely nice to get them experience last week.”
Ladarious Pittman, a 5-foot-5, 140-pound athlete, is one of the players Mitchell got to see on both sides of the ball, and the sophomore obliged by gaining 93 rushing yards, including a 75-yard touchdown scamper, and scoring on a 29-yard fumble recovery.
“We understood our defense would be the solid side of the ball early for us,” Mitchell said. “We have to get turnovers and then capitalize on them. We’ve done that a lot more lately.”
Mitchell and Starkville will try to build on the region opener at 7:30 tonight when they play host to Provine in another 5A-2 matchup.
Starkville and Provine were two of the four teams in Region 2 that won
their district opener. The winner tonight will have an edge in earning a playoff berth with a month left in the season.
Provine (3-2, 1-0) will look to build off a 31-30 road victory last week at Callaway. The Rams have talented athletes in the running game with senior Jeremy Dotson. The 180-pound tailback already has 711 rushing yards this season.
At the line of scrimmage, Provine has 320-pound lineman Cordarrly Gains, a three-star prospect who has a scholarship offer from Mississippi State. Gaines blocked a field goal last week that turned out to be a critical winning play.
“Getting early offers has really motivated me,” Gaines told Bulldawgjunction.com in February after attending MSU’s junior prospect day. “But if (schools) are coming after me, I have to be the best or at least be one of the top 5 players in the state. I can’t just be another guy.”
Starkville (3-2, 1-0) will rely on its athletes in a spread offense controlled by quarterback Gabe Myles.
“It’s all about our defense for me because if they can get us short fields and get us the ball back then it’s my responsibility to the ball in the end zone,” Myles said last week.
Myles had 155 passing yards and two touchdown passes in two and a half quarters last week, but junior tight end Stanley Higgins also provided a spark. Higgins, who has received several recruiting letters from Division I schools, scored on all three of his touches last week (two rushing, one receiving).
“I really didn’t know coach would give me the football as much as he did early, but I figured I better make the most of it,” Higgins said last week.
Mitchell knows his team will have a good chance to play host to a first-round playoff game for the first time since 2003 if it can take care of business tonight and next week when it travels to Ridgeland.
“We know the next two weeks we’ll have to load up the wagon and see how we match up with the best teams in 5A football,” Mitchell said. “We think we have the talent to be really good, but you never know until you kick it off and find out.”
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