VICKSBURG — The Starkville High School football team took one step closer to winning the district championship Friday, beating Warren Central 28-10 at Viking Stadium.
The victory helped the Yellow Jackets win their ninth-straight game and clinch at least one of the top two seeds in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A, Region 2 and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Starkville (9-1, 6-0) will play host to Clinton next week. A win would give Starkville the district title for a second-straight year. A loss and a win by Warren Central (8-2, 5-1) means the title comes down to points.
“This is why you coach, and this is what you play for,” Starkville first-year head coach Ricky Woods said. “It’s not those other games. It’s these games.”
Senior quarterback Montario Montgomery threw for 153 yards and three touchdowns to lead an offense that had 299 yards. Senior wide receiver A.J. Brown had six catches for 58 yards and one touchdown. Rontavis Clark and Parker Lemm also caught touchdowns. Avery Brown rushed for 125 yard on 23 carries and one score.
Leading 21-10 early in the fourth quarter, senior defensive lineman Maleke Bell forced a fumble in the red zone to stop a drive and give the Yellow Jackets the momentum. Starkville marched down the field and Avery Brown scored a 15-yard touchdown to stretch the lead to 18.
Montgomery hit A.J. Brown for a 27-yard touchdown, Lemm for a 15-yard touchdown, and Clark for a 15-yard touchdown.
The Vikings’ points came in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Darius Knight and a 30-yard field goal by Nick Wright. Warren Central had 195 yards of offense.
n Starkville Academy 29, Lee Academy 0: At Starkville, Houston Clark ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more as the Volunteers (10-1) overcame a slow start to beat the Colts (5-6) in the first round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA playoffs.
Starkville Academy will play host to Simpson Academy next week in the second round.
Clark scored on a 1-yard run and on an 11-yard run. His first score helped Starkville Academy take a 7-0 halftime lead. The Volunteers capitalized on a fumble inside the 10-yard line to prevent the Colts from scoring in the second quarter.
A defensive stop to start the second half and a 20-yard touchdown pass from Clark to Chrestman helped give Starkville Academy a cushion. Clark also had a 25-yard touchdown pass to Drake Gordman. He finished 7 of 19 for 153 yards.
Grant Wolfe paced the ground attack with 21 carries for 111 yards.
West Alabama
n Pickens Academy 54, Sumter Academy 10: At Carrollton, Alabama, the Pirates (5-5) had six players rush for touchdowns on a night the team rushed for 367 yards and seven scores in their regular-season finale.
Pickens Academy will play at Springwood Academy on Friday in the first round of the Alabama Independent School Association Class AA playoffs.
Chance Britt had 13 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown, Ryan Harcrow had three carries for 78 yards and two touchdowns, Brant Criswell had four carries for 62 yards, John Wesley Rye had nine carries for 54 yards and a touchdown, Landon Hattaway had one carry for 43 yards and a touchdown, Daniel Powell had two carries for 25 yards and a touchdown, Riley Harcrow had two carries for 11 yards and a touchdown, Lee Acker had two carries for 6 yards, and Clark Noland had one carry for 4 yards.
Criswell was 2 of 3 for 42 yards and a touchdown. Lee Acker caught a 12-yard touchdown. Will Jones had one catch for 30 yards.
Riley Harcrow had a team-high eight tackles, while Daniel Powell had seven and Jeff White and JB Seymer had four.
n Sulligent 41, South Lamar 34: At Millport, Alabama, Caleb Williams had 14 carries for 157 yards, including the go-ahead score on a 66-yard touchdown run with eight minutes remaining to lift the Blue Devils (7-3) to their sixth-straight victory Thursday.
In all, Sulligent had 29 carries for 255 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback CJ McLemore was 4 of 6 for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
Tyreke Metcalf had five carries for 67 yards and two touchdowns, while Cordarius Metcalf had eight carries for 24 yards.
Duston Summerville had three catches for 85 yards and a touchdown, and Hayden Nolen’s one catch went for a 21-yard touchdown on fourth-and-10.
South Lamar (6-4) had 47 carries for 273 yards. It added 97 passing yards.
Sulligent will play host to Cold Springs (6-4) on Friday in the first round of the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 2A playoffs, while South Lamar will play host to Phillips in the first round of the AHSAA Class 1A playoffs.
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