MACON — Noxubee County High School football coach Tyrone Shorter didn’t have to worry about his quarterback the last three seasons.
Timorrius Conner parlayed back-to-back Mississippi High School Activities Associations (MHSAA) Class 4A State championships into an opportunity to play at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba.
Along the way to those two titles, Conner, who started as a sophomore, went through his share of growing pains, including a loss to Lafayette County in the Class 4A North Half championship game.
Shorter knew when Conner graduated he was going to have to train a young quarterback to take over. That quarterback is sophomore Maliek Stallings. Although Stallings played well in the first three games, he struggled Friday night in a 27-19 loss to Meridian.
“Our quarterback just wasn’t hitting them and he wasn’t on,” Shorter said. “I thought we had some opportunities early on and he missed some shots we had.”
Stallings was 14 of 26 for 119 yards. He threw a touchdown and an interception. He had minus-13 yards rushing on four carries.
Stallings looked good in the second half of Noxubee County’s opener against Starkville. However, the Tigers lost 24-21. He bounced back in wins against Columbus (24-23) and Forest (41-12).
Stallings, who is a first cousin to Conner, said Meridian’s defense didn’t bother him. He attributed his performance to self-inflicted mistakes.
“We had a lot of open players and I overthrew them,” Stallings said. “I didn’t play too good for my team. I made a lot of bad decisions.
“I haven’t made enough progress because I’m not where I want to be yet. If I play better, my team will win more games.”
Trailing 21-19 with 4 minutes, 54 seconds remaining, the Tigers (2-2) got the ball at the Wildcats 44-yard line. Stallings began the drive by hitting Kyziah Pruitt on a 7-yard pass. But he was unsuccessful on the next two throws on deep balls.
Shorter said Stallings didn’t take what the defense gave him and tried to do too much in a critical situation. On both plays, Stallings had a man wide open in the flat, but he didn’t see him.
“He didn’t have to,” Shorter said. “The play was to just get the first down and he tried to take the home run. I guess that’s just youth. He’s just got to learn.”
On fourth-and-3 from the 37, Stallings and sophomore Pruitt made a critical mistake. Pruitt ran an out route, but he didn’t get past the first-down marker. Stallings hit Pruitt on the sideline, but he was pushed out of bounds a yard shy of the marker, which forced the Tigers to turn the ball over on downs.
The Wildcats (3-1) sealed the deal with a 2-yard touchdown from Tevarrius Adams with 7 seconds remaining.
Talking about his team’s final drive, Shorter chalked it up to two inexperienced players.
“My young quarterback and young receiver, we didn’t push it far enough for the first down and we were inches short,” Shorter said. “You have to push it far enough to get the first down, and you never know what would have happened after that.”
The Tigers trailed 21-7 entering the fourth quarter, but a 75-yard kickoff return touchdown from Joshua Little with 6:41 left and a 5-yard interception return for a touchdown by Anthony Davis cut the lead to 21-19. Stallings hit Pruitt on the two-point conversion attempt, but he was hit short of the goal line.
Pruitt led Noxubee County with five catches for 70 yards.
Kymbotric Mason, who had two catches for 19 yards, said it wasn’t all on Stallings.
“The playmakers that we have, we didn’t quite step up like we should,” Mason said. “Everything we did wrong because of us. It was our mistakes. It wasn’t nothing Meridian did to beat us.”
Trailing 7-0, Stallings tied the game at 7 when he hit Jakerrius Oliver for a 1-yard touchdown with 10:19 left in the second quarter. After three failed rush attempts, Shorter called a timeout before fourth-and-goal from the 1. He changed his strategy and Stallings rolled to his left and hit Oliver. Oliver fell back into the end zone to tie the game.
Meridian took a 7-0 lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Eddie Brown to Mack Martin. The drive was set up by Jaiqavius Bell’s interception of Stallings. Bell nearly returned it the distance, but he was tackled at the 3.
Meridian’s second touchdown was a 44-yard fumble return by Kendarius Glenn to make it 13-7 with 3:36 left in the third quarter.
“We turned the ball over way too much,” Shorter said. “That’s the difference in the ballgame.”
Noxubee County will play at 7 p.m. Friday in West Point and then play host to Kemper County on Sept. 23 before division play starts Sept. 30 at Kosciusko.
The way Stallings bounces back in the next two games before division play will say a lot about his character and his ability to lead the team. Shorter said he and his coaching staff have to do a better job of getting Stallings and the offense ready to play, but Stallings needs to do his part.
“They didn’t really put that much pressure on us and we had time to throw. He was just off. We thought about pulling him one time,” Shorter said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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