By John Galatas
Special to The Dispatch
STARKVILLE — On a night in which Starkville High School’s offense stalled at times in the second half, the defense continued to surge en route to a 30-7 victory over the Northwest Rankin Cougars in Class 6A, Region 2 action.
Despite poor field position and costly offensive mistakes and penalties in the second half, coach Ricky Woods believes Friday night’s performance was one of the best the Jackets have provided all year.
“I think our defense played four quarters. I think offensive field position hurt us in the second half,” he said. “I thought the offensive performance we had in the first half was the best we’ve had all year.”
Senior quarterback Montario Montgomery threw for 186 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another with 33 yards on the ground to lead Starkville (5-1, 2-0 region). Montgomery spread the field with completions to four different receivers on 10 completions, something Woods was happy to see in order to give one of Montgomery’s top targets in senior A.J. Brown more space.
“They keyed in on A.J. and others made plays like Rontavis Clark and Avery Brown,” Wood said. “Tyler (Stovall) had a couple catches, and they are trying to make plays. Those guys have to help clear A.J. up a little bit and it did.”
Montgomery connected with A.J. Brown three times on the night for 109 yards and a pair of touchdowns. A.J. Brown’s first touchdown was set up by a recovered fumble on a kickoff return. On the first play of the possession, Montgomery dropped back and tossed a perfect corner route in which his receiver leaped over two defenders to haul in the score.
Before A.J. Brown’s second touchdown, Montgomery had missed on eight of his prior nine attempts, including an interception. On third-and-eight and looking for a second-half spark, Montgomery threw a strike to his top receiver and let him do the rest, breaking a tackle and dashing to the end zone for a 78-yard score.
Woods said his quarterback’s confidence never rattle during the second half stall and looks forward to him improving.
“We’re going to keep throwing to him,” Woods said. “He’s our man. He had a good night when you look at the stats. We’re really happy with what Montario can do. You always want to get better. It’s just a process.”
Senior running back Avery Brown also contributed in the balanced offensive attack with 124 yards rushing and a touchdown, and hauled in four passes for 50 yards.
Defensively, Junior Abdural Lee led a stingy defense with seven tackles and recovered a fumble while junior Jeremy Skinner added five tackles. Starkville held Cougar quarterback Braden Smith to just 59 yards through the air and limited the mobile quarterback to 18 yards rushing. The Jackets surrendered 132 yards rushing, 52 of which came on the Cougars’ final drive capped by a Cameron Carroll touchdown.
Coach Woods credits the defensive cohesion on familiarity and being comfortable in developing chemistry as a unit.
“They’re playing together more,” Woods said. “The more you play the better you’re going to get. I think we played our best defensive game tonight.”
Senior defensive lineman Maleke Bell said the defense is eager to play better week-to-week. He was proud of the way the defense played after having to prepare for a different style of offense following last week’s win against Callaway.
“Each and every week we thrive on playing better than we did the week before,” Bell said. “Last week, I think we played a really good team, but Callaway isn’t too strong on running the ball. This week, (Northwest Rankin) had a really good quarterback who could run the ball, and coaches stayed on us really hard all week.”
The defense and special teams continues to dominate opponents as the Jackets have given up only 21 points in its last five contests. The Starkville defense forced five turnovers Friday night, including a key stop on a fake punt on the Cougars’ first drive of the game.
Woods said his team is hitting its stride in all three phases of the game, which encourages his staff as his team returns to the road next week against Greenville.
“I told them we played well,” Woods said. “And we played a lot better on offense. We just had such bad field position and made mistakes with penalties. I think we’re getting better on offense, defense and special teams. That’s what you want to do – improve.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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