WEST POINT — The loss was still fresh.
Even before West Point High’s football players left the field after a 43-22 loss to Oxford two weeks ago in the Class 5A, Region 1 opener for both teams, coach Chris Chambless already was plotting his team’s rebound.
“We just have to take this loss, learn from it, get better,” Chambless said. “We will get better. I will make sure of that. This is a district game, and it hurts, but it’s a long season. If you learn from it, it can make you better.”
The first step to getting better, and staying in the race for a playoff berth and possibly a region title, came last week, when West Point went on the road for a 35-0 victory at Clarksdale.
The second step in the region will come at 7 tonight in the form of a Homecoming game against Center Hill at McAllister Field in West Point.
“They are a good team, a well-coached team,” said Chambless of the Mustangs, who arrive in West Point with a 4-3 record and a 1-1 region mark, identical to the Green Wave. “We will have to play one of our best games to win.”
It has been an up-and-down season for West Point, which has defeated Class 4A power Noxubee County and Class 6A Grenada. For players like cornerback Jalen Lee, Chambless’ advice about leaving the Oxford game in the past was well received.
“We just have to get past it,” Lee said. “Oxford was a better team and they beat us. Credit goes to them, but we want to see them again. We want to make sure we do our job and get to the playoffs and maybe we can get a second chance at them.”
For the Green Wave, the race toward a potential 14th-consecutive playoff berth will come down to a critical stretch of region games that includes matchups with playoff hopefuls Saltillo and New Hope. Center Hill also belongs in that group thanks to the play of dynamic quarterback Danterius Ellington. The 6-foot-2, 173-pound junior fits the mold of a dual-threat quarterback, and he has been among the region’s best this year. Ellington has completed 67 percent of his passes for 1,454 yards and 12 touchdowns (one interception). He has rushed 155 times for 612 yards and 10 scores. Ellington accounted for more than 50 percent of Center Hill’s offense.
“He’s a great high school football player,” Chambless said. “We know they want to throw it around a lot, and when you focus on that, he can pull it down and run it. Our defense will have to be very disciplined against this team. Ellington passed for 359 yards and four touchdowns in a loss to New Hope last Friday night.”
But he will face a West Point defense that has improved dramatically. A year after giving up nearly 35 points per game in a 7-5 season, West Point’s defense has returned to its traditional roots, giving up an average of 17 points per game.
“We are better this season,” West Point linebacker Kadarius Forside said. “I think a lot of us is just listening to our coaches better, carrying out our assignments better. But we have better leadership, too.”
Forside has provided plenty of leadership for the Green Wave, and he has done it on both sides of the ball. West Point’s leading tackler on defense, the younger brother of former West Point star Justin Cox, now a starting safety at No. 3 Mississippi State, also has answered the call on offense. Filling in last week at tailback, Forside ran for more than 130 yards and two touchdowns.
“Whatever it takes to win, I will do it,” Forside said. “If that means running the ball, I will run it.”
That has been the mentality for West Point this season, as the Green Wave have re-emerged as a contender for the Region 1 crown, a list that, for the moment, looks up to Oxford (6-1). But for Chambless, the road to the playoffs begins in earnest tonight.
“This is a big game,” Chambless said. “We need our fans to show up and give us a big homefield advantage.”
Those aren’t hollow words from Chambless, who is in his ninth season at West Point and owns 93 career wins. His players are listening.
“We will get past that loss,” West Point quarterback Dason Thomas said. “We can still have the kind of year we want, we can still achieve all of our goals. It starts (tonight).”
n In high school action from the state of Mississippi on Thursday, DeSoto Central beat Olive Branch 17-14, Oxford defeated Lewisburg 49-26, South Panola rolled past Hernando 52-3, Southaven upended Tupelo 17-7, and Union beat Clarkdale 30-22.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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