MACON — It’s time to finish.
Tyrone Shorter feels Friday night would be the ideal time for the Noxubee County High School football team to put it all together and build momentum for another run at a state title.
If Shorter has his way, Noxubee County will do that at 7 p.m. Friday against Houston in its regular-season finale. The game also will serve as Senior Night for the Tigers.
Noxubee County (6-4, 4-0 Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 4) will wrap up its fifth-straight region title and the region’s No. 1 seed and the right to play at home in the first round of the playoffs, which will start next week. A victory also would stretch the Tigers’ region winning streak to 26 games, dating back to a 14-12 loss to Louisville on Oct. 20, 2011.
A victory by Houston (8-2, 3-1) could force a three-way tie atop the region. Louisville defeated Houston 27-23 last week. Louisville faces Kosciusko on Friday in its regular-season finale. Noxubee County defeated 34-26 on Oct. 13 in Louisville.
“We control our own destiny,” Shorter said. “We don’t have to worry about a three-way tie if we go in and take care of business. I think we have them where we want them, at home and on Senior Night. They are going to bring a nice crowd and they have a good football team. Our kids know they are not going to just give it to them. We feel like we have a great game plan against them.”
Noxubee County is coming off a 47-33 victory against Caledonia. The Tigers built a 21-0 halftime lead en route to their 10th-straight victory in the series. Shorter said he wasn’t concerned about the number of points the Tigers gave up in the victory because he knew the Confederates (4-5, 1-3) were going to score. He praised Caledonia coach Andy Crotwell and his team’s offense, but he lamented the fact his team committed 19 penalties for 175 yards. He said the team also lost its focus at halftime.
After the coaches met in the locker room during the intermission, Shorter said he thought the players were having a party when he and the coaches entered the locker room. He said the Tigers still are learning how to finish and to stay focused for four quarters.
Noxubee County can’t afford to relax with the playoff right around the corner. Shorter hopes the offense can build on an effort that saw it have one touchdown called back and it gain more than 600 yards.
“I felt like at times we could have really, really blown the game open, but our offense is heading in the right direction,” Shorter said. “The offensive showed more consistency. We went into the game wanting to establish a run game and do a lot of play-action off the run game. Just about everything we did offensively was working. When we got stopped, we pretty much stopped ourselves.”
The flip side is the Tigers continue to hurt themselves with penalties. While he didn’t agree with the number of penalties his team received and the discrepancy in the number of penalties between the teams, Shorter said “silly” mistakes continue to haunt the Tigers. He said holding and offsides penalties remain a problem.
“Small things like that can come back and hurt you in the playoffs, so we have to be smarter,” Shorter said.
Shorter also wants to make sure the Tigers are focused. He said the players understand one loss at this time of the season can end a season, but he also has talked about inconsistency holding the team back. Friday night will be the Tigers’ last chance to learn how to finish before they enter the knockout stage of the season. With a chance to win a third-straight Class 4A State title, Shorter and the Tigers want to make sure they are the ones knocking teams out of the playoffs.
“At this time, they have it in their mind-set that this is playoff football, so they know no one is going to give them anything,” Shorter said. “The only team this team needs to do is start finishing and not get too relaxed. We are not going to take Houston lightly at all.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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