After another long and fruitful playoff run, Noxubee County finds itself in the Class 3A state championship game for the fourth straight year.
Along the way the Tigers have knocked out two teams that keep them from hoisting the Golden Football trophy in their last two trips to the title game (Choctaw County and Winona), and tomorrow’s noon kickoff at Davis Wade Stadium sets the grand stage for Noxubee to avenge the first of its recent three losses in the state championship game when it takes on Raleigh.
An opportunity to complete the revenge sweep of teams that quashed their championship hopes has the Tigers feeling good and playing even better.
“Getting the chance to play the team that beat you for a state championship, it’s a little extra motivation for the kids,” head coach Teddy Young said. “Our biggest thing is that we’ve been playing real good football. We’ve been good on special teams, playing good defense and we haven’t been turning the ball over offensively. Those are the keys to our victories these last two games.”
Raleigh squeaked out a 55-52 victory over Noxubee for the 2022 state crown but hadn’t been able to cross the semifinal barrier in the following two seasons. Behind a stout Wing-T offense and a bruising defense, the Lions put together a 13-1 campaign this year to get back to the big game. Their only setback of the year was a 14-6 loss to D’Iberville to begin the year and the team responded by winning 13 straight games. On offense, the team has piled up 503 points on the season for an average of 35 points per game and on defense the team has only given 179 points on the year, an average of 12 points per game, including four shutouts.
“They run the ball. They are physical, they are fast, they are very athletic, they are very well-coached,” Young said. “… They don’t do nothing to hurt themselves offensively. On defense they do a great job taking the ball away.”
For the Tigers, they are coming off a 54-21 beatdown of Winona – the most points they scored in a game all season – in the North Half championship game last week. In that game both Jykeim Goodwin and Jadien Taylor ran for 160 yards while Goodwin punched in four rushing touchdowns and Taylor ran in three. Tony Speight added one more rushing touchdown to help knock off the team that ended the Tigers’ 2023 title hopes.
Saturday also brings the last football in the high school career for Taylor, who has accounted for a combined 26 touchdowns on offense for the Tigers. The Mississippi State commit gets the opportunity to play his last high school game at the stadium of his future college team, the same one where his brother Kamario Taylor is heir apparent at quarterback.
“I expect him to have one of his best games of his career,” Young said. “This is his last game. He’s playing where he’s going to play his next three to four years of college ball, so like I told him, ‘There’s no better way to go out than winning your last high school football game and you winning it in a place you’ll be playing for the next four to three years.’ But, I expect all of my guys to be locked in and ready to roll.”
On offense, Noxubee brings in an average of 33 points per game and relinquishes an average of 19 points per contest while scoring at least 34 points in all four of its playoff games. Both teams bring in plenty of size and athletic ability on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and Young said winning that battle up front is a massive key to their success if his program wants to bring home state championship No. 5.
“They have a good (defensive) line, they run the ball, so I think the game will be won in the trenches,” he said. “Also offensively, not turning the ball over; we can’t give them nothing. We have to finish possessions, and defensively we can’t give up the big play in the pass game and we have to tackle well.”
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