Within the first seven minutes of Friday night’s MAIS Class 5A football semifinal, Oak Forest Academy had sacked Heritage Academy quarterback Mack Howard, chased him out of the pocket four times and gone on a 10-play, 56-yard scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead.

The response from the Patriots boiled down to, “What else you got?”

When Howard wasn’t getting hit or running for his life, he carved up the Yellow Jackets, connecting on 19 of 23 passes for 228 yards and three scores as the second-seeded Patriots reached the 5A title game with a hard-fought 28-21 win over the third-seeded Yellow Jackets in Columbus.

Howard was sacked five times and was forced out of the pocket at least a half-dozen other times.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sore,” Howard said. “Credit to Oak Forest, they did a heck of a job. They played their tails off, so all respect to them. I’m just so happy we got out with a win.”

While Howard was working through the air, senior Wesley Miller was working on the ground. He finished with 148 yards on 14 carries, but the big plays stood out.

Two of them came during the fourth quarter. The first was a 22-yard scamper for the go-ahead score with 8:48 left in the game. Miller went right, dodged a couple of would-be tacklers and juked another for the score.

Then, with Oak Forest in desperation mode on fourth down at the Heritage 22 with 5:23 to go and trailing by seven, Miller stepped in front of a Yellow Jackets receiver for an interception. Oak Forest wouldn’t touch the ball again.

“I was kind of baiting him,” Miller said. “I was playing up a little bit. I saw it the whole time.”

It didn’t look like it would be that kind of a game after the opening minutes.

“I knew first drive they’d go straight down the field because we just couldn’t replicate that in practice,” Heritage coach Sean Harrison said. “But we settled in.”

That was the case on offense as well.

“They had some different blitz packages that we weren’t ready for, but at the end of the day, for us, we finished,” Howard said. “I’m really proud of the guys and how we responded to adversity.”

The Patriots answered Oak Forest’s initial score quickly, as Miller went left and down the sideline for 41 yards on third-and-2 to give Heritage the ball at the Oak Forest 24. From there, the familiar combination of Howard to Trey Naugher evened the score. 

Naugher ended up with 8 receptions for 112 yards and two scores.

But it wasn’t until the Patriots’ next possession that Howard was able to get some time to throw, and it helped Heritage take temporary control of the game.

Oak Forest had marched 69 yards inside the Heritage 10. On fourth-and-2 from the 6, the Jackets elected to pass for the first time in the game, but a high pass was broken up by Miller in the end zone to end the threat.

Mixing the run and pass, Heritage promptly went 94 yards on 12 plays, highlighted by a 19-yard run by Miller and capped by a 32-yard strike from Howard to Naugher.

“I think I was seeing it a little faster on the second drive,” Howard said. “First drive I didn’t see it as fast, it was different than anything I had seen. But once I got used to it, I settled in and just played ball.”

Two plays later, it was the defense coming up big. Senior lineman Ayden Mitchell grabbed the ball away from an Oak Forest ball carrier, and the Patriots were in business at the Jackets’ 35. Howard hit Naugher for 10, Luke Fisher for 6, Miller for 10 and then Fisher over the middle for a 15-yard score. The PAT was blocked, but the Patriots would take the 20-7 lead into halftime.

Any thought the visitors from Amite, Louisiana, would wilt were erased quickly. Aided by 30 yards on back-to-back penalties, the Jackets moved from their own 28 to first-and-goal at the Heritage 2. It took two tries, but junior Scott White put his head down and barrelled into the end zone to close the gap to 20-14.

Then it was Oak Forest’s turn to make a big play, with Howard getting blindsided and losing the ball at the Patriots’ 33. An 18-yard run by Reece Wolfe set up a twisting 3-yard scoring burst from White, and the PAT gave Oak Forest a 21-20 lead.

“That’s a heck of a team over there,” Harrison said. “That team is huge, they were physical, and they outweighed us up front.”

Again, Heritage had an answer. After an exchange of punts, Howard found Mitchell Woodard for 38 yards, and Miller scored his touchdown two plays later.

Miller’s interception left nothing more to do than run out the clock, which Heritage did, mostly by handing off to Miller. In a bit of irony, Oak Forest, which had been penalized once compared to the nine flags thrown on Heritage, jumped offsides on fourth-and-2 on the play after the Jackets called their last timeout, basically ending the game. 

“We came out tonight and put it on the backs of our best players,” Harrison said. “We put it on Mack’s back, we put it on Wesley’s back there at the end, Luke and Eli (Dement), Mitchell (Woodard) and Trey. Trey had a huge game for us because they wanted to go double Mitchell, and that’s the kind of kid Mitchell is. No complaints.”

Heritage will face Copiah Academy (10-2), a surprise 33-21 winner over Leake Academy, in the final at 3 p.m. Friday in Jackson.

Heritage Academy 28, Oak Forest Academy 21

Oak Forest Academy (8-4)  7   0  14  0  —  21

Heritage Academy (12-1) 7  13   0  8  —  28

First quarter

OFA — Scott White 1 run (Ruston Relan kick), 6:09

HA — Trey Naugher 24 pass from Mack Howard (Todd Sharp kick), 4:30

Second quarter

HA — Naugher 32 pass from Howard (Sharp kick), 7:00

HA — Luke Fisher 15 pass from Howard (kick blocked), 4:24

Third quarter

OFA — White 1 run (Relan kick), 6:24

OFA — White 3 run (Relan kick), 2:52

Fourth quarter

HA — Wesley Miller 22 run (Miller run), 8:48

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