ABERDEEN — The Noxubee County High School football team entered its matchup against Aberdeen averaging 354.6 yards a game.
Even though the Bulldogs held the Tigers to 245 yards and nine first downs, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s quip, “Statistics are for losers” was the case here Friday night.
Noxubee County ranked No. 6 in The Associated Press and No. 1 in the Class 4A poll, manhandled Aberdeen 45-0.
That popular adage, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” known as Murphy’s Law, reared its ugly head early as Aberdeen botched the opening kickoff. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong for the Bulldogs the remainder of the game — the better part of three quarters of which was played with a running clock.
Noxubee’s anemic total yard numbers weren’t attributable to any letdown by the offense, but because Noxubee County scored on four of its first six possessions in which it gained possession of the football at midfield or inside Aberdeen territory.
Only a fumble at the Aberdeen 21 on Noxubee’s third possession and the halftime whistle kept it from being 6-for-6, but the Tigers made up for the two lost opportunities with an interception return for a touchdown early in the second period and a 30-yard punt return for a score on Aberdeen’s ensuing possession.
“Offensively, we started off pretty fast,” Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter said. “The offensive line did a great job, and our running backs are stepping it up.”
Shorter’s offensive line average 266 pounds per man, and the Tigers used their size advantage to pick up almost 5 yards every time they ran the ball. That same line gave quarterback DeAngelo Ballard enough time to pick the defense apart in a 7-for-10 passing effort good for 124 yards, a 17.7-yard average.
“We’re pretty solid across that front line,” said Shorter, a graduate of Austin Peay State University who played defensive back one year with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and several more seasons in the CFL.
Equally impressive was Noxubee County’s defense that limited Aberdeen to 32 yards, 22 passing and 10 rushing yards on 29 rushing attempts — 21 of which went for 1 yard or less.
“The defense played outstanding ball tonight,” said Shorter, who served 11 years as defensive coordinator under M.C. Miller before taking over as head coach. “They really got after it.”
Aberdeen coach Mark Bray had little to say concerning his team’s performance, but was impressed by Noxubee County.
“As a team, we were totally unprepared,” Bray said. “Our kids were intimidated, and it showed from the get-go. Noxubee is definite a top-10 team, no doubt.”
Aberdeen offensive coordinator Alex Williams watched as Noxubee County defenders appeared to hold their team meetings in the Bulldogs’ backfield and had 11 stops behind the line of scrimmage for 53 yards in losses.
“There was a total lack of focus on the offensive side of the ball,” said Williams, who took over the coordinator’s duties from Bray this season. “We knew we had to play our best ball to win, but they (Noxubee) came at us and barked and we jumped back.”
Aberdeen defensive coordinator Sammie Burroughs was equally dismayed.
“We did not play well tonight,” Burroughs said. “Noxubee shouldn’t have any trouble winning it all.”
For all practical purposes, the game was decided in the first two minutes following a botched opening kickoff that gave the Tigers the ball at midfield. Four plays and a minute and 20 seconds later, Darrell Robinson scooted 11 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
Seconds later, Aberdeen fumbled on its first play from scrimmage and Jarvis Taylor made it a 12-0 game with a 14-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first quarter. Ballard’s toss to Taylor made it 14-0.
Noxubee County’s third possession ended with a fumble, but Robinson scored again on a 21-yard run after a Jose Moran interception to make it 20-0. Fernando Phillips darted 16 yards on the first play of the second quarter to make it 26-0.
Two plays later, defensive back Dennis Brooks scored on a 35-yard interception return and Antravion Jameson added a 30-yard punt return to give the Tigers a 38-0 halftime cushion.
Robinson completed the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown on the Tigers’ first possession of the second half to complete a 12-play, 73-yard march, their longest of the game.
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