STARKVILLE — When the clock hit zero Friday night, tears streamed across the faces of a few West Point football players.
Losing has never been a normal occurrence for them.
Trailing by three touchdowns at halftime, the four-time defending state champion Green Wave rallied in the second half against rival Starkville to bring the deficit to one possession with more than 5 minutes remaining. But a costly offsides penalty on fourth down that ran precious seconds off the clock followed by a turnover that led to a defensive score was the difference in West Point’s first loss since Week 2 of the 2019 season. The Yellow Jackets held on, 40-28.
“You can’t make mistakes; you can’t turn it over; you can’t commit penalties pre-snap; you have to line up right,” West Point coach Chris Chambless said. “That’s stuff we’ll get better with. It’s been a long time since we’ve been on the field. We have a lot of new faces, but I’m proud of them. We fought and kept fighting. A couple different plays here and there, and it would have been a different outcome, but we’re going to get better.”
The season started in spectacular fashion for the Green Wave, as junior running back Jakobe Pate ran West Point’s second play from scrimmage 81 yards for the first score of the night.
“I saw open space. Once I knew I had that, I knew I could run for a touchdown,” Pate said.
Pate finished with 122 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
But Starkville quarterback Luke Altmyer was too much for the Green Wave to handle in the first half. The four-star Florida State commit rushed for a 74-yard touchdown on the Yellow Jackets’ first play from scrimmage, then completed 14 of 19 passes for 286 yards in the first half, leading to a 26-7 West Point deficit.
“He’s an outstanding quarterback,” Chambless said. “He did some things tonight we knew he was going to do, but we were a little late reacting. We’re going to fix that. All in all, our effort is there; we just have to get better at executing in all three phases.”
In the second half, Pate, Cameron Young and Montavious Edwards all scored rushing touchdowns for the Green Wave. Young had a game-high 172 rushing yards, averaging 11.5 yards per carry. As a team, West Point racked up 445 yards of total offense, while Starkville put up 488.
Missed opportunities plagued West Point on both ends in the final few minutes of regulation. With 3:13 remaining and Starkville leading 33-28, Altmyer, who missed a large chunk of the second half due to a severe cramp, nearly threw an interception that had a chance to be a pick-six on third-and-4, but the pass was dropped instead. With the ball on West Point’s 42, Starkville coach Chris Jones elected to punt, but the Green Wave jumped offsides, allowing the Yellow Jackets to run an additional two minutes off the clock.
“We knew going in it was going to be a little sloppy,” Chambless said. “We tried to cut out those mistakes, but you can’t make those mistakes in important times. You see what happens when we’re fixing to get the ball back with a little time on the clock we can do something with. But I don’t fault any of the kids. That’s on me. I’m the coach. We have to correct those mistakes and move on.”
The Green Wave took over on their own 22 with 1:12 left, but Starkville sealed the win after Ahmir Taylor sacked West Point quarterback Corbin Kelley, forcing a fumble that Ja’carius Hendricks recovered for a defensive touchdown. Kelley finished 5 of 10 passing for 59 yards on the day.
West Point (0-1) is back in action on the road against Tupelo (0-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We got a lot of new guys, but we have to put the team on our back,” Pate said.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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