MACON — A season opener like this is one energizes fans and causes coaches to loss inordinate amounts of sleep.
In a battle of defending state champions, the Noxubee County and Starkville high school football teams squared off here Friday night in their annual season opener before an overflow crowd. The Yellow Jackets used a bend-but-don’t-break defense, took care of the football on offense, and capitalized on mistakes by the Tigers to earn a 17-0 victory.
Games between solid programs like these two often come down to little things that one team does better than the other. This game saw Starkville play nearly error free, take advantage of numerous mistakes by a Noxubee County squad that is trying to replace 23 seniors from last season, and do the little things in three big series.
The first play set the tone, as Noxubee County mishandled a pitch on the toss sweep and Starkville recovered on the 6-yard line. After a 3-yard loss on first down, Starkville senior quarterback Princeton Jones found senior wide receiver Raphael Leonard in the corner of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown.
“That definitely set the tone and gave our team a lot of confidence to get that turnover and convert it into points early,” Starkville coach Jamie Mitchell said.
Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter concurred.
“It changed the momentum from the start,” Shorter said. “Young quarterback and young running back, and we turned it over on the first play. It hurt us, and we just never seemed to come back from that.”
Two series later, Noxubee County set off on a 17-play, 73-yard drive to the Starkville 2. All of the yards came on the ground from running backs Devonte Scott (junior), Eric Hunt (senior), and Darrell Brandon (junior). The drive ate up more than six and a half minutes. With a first-and-goal from the 2 against it, Starkville’s defense stiffened and held the Tigers on downs.
“That was a major turning point in the game,” Mitchell said. “In the first half, they were able to run the ball on us, and for our defense to hold them out of the end zone there was huge. Later on, we made some adjustments and were able to contain their running game better in the second half.”
Shorter agreed with the importance of not scoring on the drive, saying, “Not scoring there was big. We are at the 1 on second down and get thrown for a loss, and the play on third down is a touchdown if we put a little air under the throw, but we are not making excuses. I really like this team, and we are going to learn from this and we will bounce back.”
The third series came with five minutes left in the half and Starkville leading 10-0. On a third-and-8 from the Noxubee 24, Starkville ran a slip screen that bounced off the receiver’s hands and into the arms of linebacker Hunt, who returned the ball 37 yards to the Starkville 39. Noxubee County moved to the Starkville 11, converting one fourth down, but again the Starkville defense stood tall.
“I was surprised No. 5 (Hunt) got caught on the interception. I thought he was gone,” Shorter said. “That was our chance. We score there we change the momentum right before half, but we stall and don’t score. We have got to capitalize on things like that. We have got to score when we get big plays like that, and when you don’t, it just gives the momentum back to the opposing team.”
Mitchell agreed, saying, “Our defense held when they had to all night long. We didn’t give up, we kept playing, and were able to defend the goal line and holding them there allowed us to keep the momentum going into the second half and do what we do, which is run the ball, control the clock, and ride that defense while our offense gains experience.”
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