MACON — The exhale you heard last week was Tyrone Shorter finally seeing his Noxubee County High School football team play like he knows it can.
Mired in a four-game losing streak, Noxubee County kicked off Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 4 play with a 22-12 victory against Kosciusko. Senior quarterback Timorrius Conner threw for 269 yards and a touchdown to help the Tigers (3-4, 1-0 region) extend their winning streak to 17 games in region play.
Noxubee County will look to make it 18 in a row at 7 tonight when it travels to Leake Central (4-3, 0-1). Louisville opened region play last week with a 22-9 victory against Leake Central.
“Our kids know what time of year it is,” Shorter said. “They knew Kosciusko is a good football team and they refused to lose. I thought we did a great job in all three phases of the game. We still have some small things we need to take care of.”
Shorter hopes the victory is the first domino for a team that started to question itself following losses to Aledo (Texas) High, Meridian, West Point, and Kemper County.
Shorter said the continued return to health of wide receiver Kymbotric Mason and running back Shunessy Sherrod has provided a lift for an offense that has moved the football but has struggled in the red zone. The Tigers had the same problems last week, moving into the red zone three times and leaving at least 21 points on the field, according to Shorter. He said “finish” is the word the Tigers will focus on moving forward.
But Shorter is confident Noxubee County will continue to work through those issues. With only two players still out with injuries, including senior defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, Shorter likes where his team is entering the home stretch. In fact, he had to smile earlier last week when he heard his players break a huddle after beating Kosciusko with the chant, “Nine more.” That is the number of games Noxubee County will need to win to run the table and win another Class 4A state title.
“This team feels it can win it and is starting to believe in themselves again, and believe in each other,” Shorter said. “It started Friday (against Kosciusko). This week at practice, everybody is there and we are rotating the kids like you really wanted to all year. They are starting to have fun again. For three days this week, they didn’t want to end practice. I started to smile because that is a good sign. In the previous years, the championship teams loved to practice and loved to be out here.”
Shorter cautioned, though, that all isn’t fixed. He said the Tigers still haven’t scored more than 28 points in a game and haven’t posted a shutout. The last time a Noxubee County team failed to do that in its first seven games was 1999. The Tigers finished 3-8 that season and didn’t score more than 20 points in a game. They posted only one shutout.
Last season, Noxubee County scored 567 and had four shutouts en route to its third state championship.
Shorter believes he is starting to see the 2015 team move with a “swagger” that some of the best Noxubee County squads have had. He said the players’ attitudes and level of energy have changed following the victory. He isn’t sure how or why his team lost a little confidence. The only guess he can make is the players started to listen to outside voices and didn’t play Noxubee County football.
“You want your team to compete,” Shorter said. “For a few weeks, we stopped competing. Even at practice, we stopped competing. We are focused now. We counted the penalties (Wednesday) because our Wednesday practice is high tempo, and I think we might have had three penalties the whole practice.”
Attention to detail like that will help put Noxubee County back on the path to a state title. Noxubee County looked to be safely on its way after opening the season with victories against Starkville and Columbus. But things slowly unraveled as the Tigers struggled to find their footing against what some believe was the state’s toughest non-region schedule.
Shorter said the losses let all of the air out of his team’s balloon and affected their focus and play in practice. He told his coaches he felt one win would help change the team’s fortunes. After beating one of the region’s toughest teams, Shorter said the players enthusiasm and love for the game is showing itself.
“I think our kids are starting to buy into (the idea that), OK, we haven’t been playing Noxubee County football,” Shorter said. “Our defense is working really hard this week to get a shutout. Our offense said they are going to score 40 points (tonight). If they believe in that, I believe in it, too. They have been practicing like it this week, so I am excited about it. I can’t wait to see them play (today) because it seems like they have that swag back.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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