RIDGELAND — The Starkville High School football team’s road to Jackson is complete.
Starkville High will play for its first state football championship in a decade after its second victory this season in Ridgeland, a convincing 28-7 win Friday night that clinched the gave the Class 5A North State championship.
“I’m proud for the community of Starkville and our kids because this is a dream come true for everyone involved,” Starkville coach Jamie Mitchell said.
Mitchell will coach in his first state championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday when Starkville will take on Picayune (12-2) at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. Picayune defeated Pearl River Central 45-10 to win the South State title.
“I went in 1991 as an assistant (at Pontotoc High School), and when it’s your first opportunity to take a team to Jackson in 19 years, it does not get any better than this,” Mitchell said.
A victory will help Starkville win its fifth state championship in school history. The last time Starkville played for the Class 5A state championship was 2001 when it defeated Moss Point 34-0.
“I swear to you we thought and talked about next year being the season we would play for the state championship,” Starkville High School Athletic Director Stan Miller said. “We sat down and said we had talented juniors and seniors and we’re probably a year away from being there. These kids just flat out believe they can’t be beat.”
Ridgeland, which opened in 2002, was playing host to its first North State title game. It fell one game short of reaching its first state title game for the second year in a row. It lost to eventual state champion West Point last season.
Starkville (12-2) overcame two turnovers and a season-high 19 penalties for its 10th-straight victory of the season.
“Our coaches talked to us about adversity during the team meal, and on the drives we did score, we didn’t have many, if any mental mistakes,” Starkville junior quarterback Gabe Myles said.
Like its trip in October to Ridgeland, Starkville’s first possession ended in a turnover as Myles was stripped on a draw play. The turnover gave the Titans the football near midfield early in the opening quarter.
Ridgeland (10-4) turned the fumble into the first touchdown, as senior tailback Quardarius Armour took a fourth-and-1 handoff 21 yards to the end zone.
Armour, who finished with 1,895 yards this season, had only 15 against Starkville in the first meeting. He had 55 yards Friday night, but just negative-1 yard on three carries in the second half. The senior became less of a factor once the Titans trailed in the second half and were forced to abandon the run game and put quarterback Tyler James in the shotgun.
“They tied us up early with the run game, but we dialed it up with the pass rush and told the other sideline if they were going beat us, they better get it off in a few seconds,” Mitchell said.
Starkville sacked James several times and had the 6-foot-1 senior scrambling around pressure on nearly every one of his 34 passes.
“Every time we got a drive going, that set us back,” Ridgeland coach Kenny Burton said.
Starkville’s offense received a boost from the special teams after the team pinned Ridgeland deep in its territory. Starkville answered in the second quarter after Burton called for a third-down quick kick. Johnny Smith made the Titans pay by picking the ball up and sprinting 60 yards with a wall of teammates beside him for the score. It was the first touchdown of the season for Smith, a junior defensive back, who broke into the starting lineup as the free safety late in the year.
In a reversal of Starkville’s 26-23 victory Oct. 7 at Titan Stadium, the Yellow Jackets had just four first downs and were outgained 126-66 in the first 24 minutes. Once both teams entered the locker room, Mitchell and his coaching staff made adjustments that allowed the Yellow Jackets to march 55 yards for a touchdown on the first possession of the second half. Preston Baker, a 5-foot-5 junior Mitchell called “the fastest player on my team,” took the kickoff 55 yards to give Starkville excellent field position.
Myles finally found some holes in the middle of the defense as he took a direct snap draw play 11 yards to give the Region 2 champions their first lead, 14-7.
Myles, who struggled to find any rhythm in the first half, had 99 yards on 11 carries.
“He was so down at halftime and we just told him he’s led us all year long and this second half was his to win,” Mitchell said.
Two plays later, Smith found the football and end zone again on a 36-yard fumble return to make it 21-7 with 7 minutes, 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
Myles all but guaranteed a state championship appearance with his second touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. On a third-and-10 play, he scrambled away from blitzers around the 30-yard-line, tucked the football under his arm, and barreled his way to the end zone.
“I guess the running game was what I was best at tonight, even though recently it’s not what I’m accustomed to doing,” Myles said. “Why not go with it until they stop it?
“We talked about going to Jackson a lot because we knew we had the tools to do it. We got an empty trophy stand in our locker room, and I promise we’re going to fill that stand.”
Sophomore Ladorious Pittman, a converted defensive back, consistently broke long runs against the Titans and finished with a career-high 130 yards on 15 carries. Pittman’s effort was part of a rushing attack that had 247 yards and pushed its two-game total against Ridgeland to 591 yards this season.
“He is an enormously talented sophomore that hasn’t been healthy the last three or four games,” Mitchell said. “This week was the first for him to be 100 percent physically. He is just another guy that gives us another punch offensively.”
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