This is it.
Heritage Academy football coach Barrett Donahoe knows no other way to put it than to say his team has to beat Leake Academy in its regular-season finale to have a chance to qualify for the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA playoffs.
Heritage Academy (4-5) lost to Indianola Academy 38-7 last week. The loss left the Patriots in 17th place among Class AAA teams entering the final week of the regular season. The top 16 teams advance to the postseason, so Donahoe and his players know the only way to have a chance to join that group is to win at 7 p.m. Friday in a Class AAA, District 2 game in Madden.
“Our guys know that the only way we have a shot of making it is to win,” said Donahoe, whose team is 1-1 in the district. “We are the team that is on the outside looking in. It is not a role we wanted to be in, but it is where we are. I told them after the game that this week from a preparation standpoint and a game standpoint it was all going to be about how much desire they had to continue to play. We will find out
Donahoe said a victory won’t guarantee Heritage Academy a playoff spot, but he said everyone has to put that possibility out of their minds and focus on the task of beating a quality district rival on their home field.
“I think at this point of the season you have to be able to beat good teams. We didn’t last week,” Donahoe said. “We have played well against good teams at times. Starkville Academy has a good team Indianola has a good team. Pisgah has a good team. Lamar had a good team. We have played well against all of those opponents at different times, but, in the end, the results were the same. We have to do a better job of getting off the field on third down and maintaining the football on offense and putting points on the board when we get into the red zone. That is something we have struggled with against good teams.”
Donahoe expects Leake Academy (6-3, 1-1) to have an aggressive group of linebackers that will be similar to Indianola Academy. He said Leake Academy’s offense will show a lot of formations, which at this time of the season is challenging to face. He said the goal is to get the defense lined up better more consistently this week. Last week, he said the Patriots had difficulty lining up against the 34-35 formations Indianola Academy showed on film.
But Donahoe has liked what he has seen in practice. In fact, he said he has seen the defense get back to the way it played earlier in the season, particularly a 10-0 victory against Oak Hill Academy in Columbus in which Heritage Academy didn’t allow a first down. He said the Patriots have been flying to the football and showing the energy and enthusiasm they need to on defense to have a chance to win against a good team. He hopes this is the week Heritage Academy can put the pieces of good games it has played and make a whole one.
“Somewhere along the line defensively we lost confidence in what we were doing,” Donahoe said. “It has to do with playing good competition and allowing good competition to do good things against you and not being able to rebound from it. We have to get that swagger back that we had in week three. We have to get that back.”
If it happens, Heritage Academy will have a chance to extend its season. If not, the Patriots will pack it up much earlier than Donahoe wants.
“The idea it possibly could be over Oct. 23 just blows my mind,” Donahoe said. “We talked about it the other day, this is the time when football is fun, when you get to the playoffs and you get to the playoff point. I told them that I didn’t know about them, but I know my coaches and myself aren’t ready for this to be over. We want to keep playing football.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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