All Braden Davidson needed was a glimpse.
Busy pass blocking, the Heritage Academy junior running back only caught snapshots of the play that came to seal his team’s 21-19 win over Starkville Academy in Friday’s MAIS Class 5A quarterfinal: Patriots quarterback Mack Howard releasing the football; wide receiver Harris Gunter working open downfield.
It was all Davidson needed to see to be sure what would happen next.
“I knew he was going to catch it,” Davidson said, “and I knew that was the game when that happened.”
Gunter’s catch and run of 67 yards with a minute and 44 seconds to go took the Patriots from their own 14-yard line to the Volunteers’ 19, sent Heritage Academy into victory formation a few plays later and helped the Pats (8-2) escape with a 21-19 win over their rivals.
“It feels great to survive that one,” Heritage Academy coach Sean Harrison said.
It was an understandable sentiment after Starkville Academy (6-5) came roughly five feet from erasing a 21-6 deficit entirely. The Vols marched down the field and scored late in the third quarter and blocked a punt to set up first and goal at the Pats’ 3-yard line with just a few minutes to go, trailing by eight.
Harrison, knowing Starkville Academy’s rushing attack likely meant a touchdown, called timeout after the blocked punt. He had a message to convey.
“Look, they’re probably going to score,” Harrison told his team. “The two-point conversion is the play.”
Colby Allen punched in a 1-yard score, and on the ensuing two-point try, the Pats stuffed dynamic running back CJ Jackson near the 2-yard line. Instead of a tie game, Starkville Academy still trailed by two points.
“We didn’t execute properly,” Vols coach Chase Nicholson said. “You run it a hundred times, and hopefully you score 99 of them. That happened to be the one we didn’t.”
It was one of the few plays Friday on which Jackson didn’t get what he came for. The senior back had 1-yard touchdown runs for Starkville Academy in the first and third quarters. His first tally capped an opening drive that lasted nearly eight minutes — which, compared to the Vols’ first possession when the two teams met Oct. 16, Harrison was willing to endure.
“Making them drive that long, that’s what I was pleased with — a lot better than a 65-yard run with seven broken tackles on the first play,” Harrison said.
Harrison noted that his defense once again bent but didn’t break against the Vols’ potent offense. The Patriots are the only team this season to have held Starkville Academy under 20 points, and they’ve done it twice.
“They come to work every day, and they just do what they’re supposed to do,” Howard said of his defense. “I’m really proud of them.”
Of course, the sophomore signal caller had plenty of his own impact on Friday’s game. He jump-started Heritage Academy’s offense with two big connections to sophomore wide receiver Trey Naugher early in the second quarter, and Davidson capped it off by going untouched up the middle for a 10-yard score.
Nine minutes later, Davidson took an option pitch left for a 20-yard touchdown. He credited Heritage Academy’s offensive line for its role in both scores.
“The holes, you could drive a truck through,” Davidson said. “It’s really on them, to be honest.”
The O-line helped again midway through the third quarter as Jaylan Stewart hugged the right sideline for a 39-yard score to increase the Pats’ lead to 21-16.
But the Vols weren’t done.
They marched right down the field for Jackson’s second touchdown of the game and soon cracked down on defense to get the ball back. With 4:33 to go in the game, a Heritage Academy punt in the shadow of the Pats’ own end zone was blocked, and Starkville Academy took over at the 3.
Allen finished the drive with his 1-yard score, but with Jackson turned away, the Patriots just had to run the clock out.
On third down, Howard scrambled for his life to avoid pressure, his heart beating fast. Keeping his eyes downfield, he noticed Gunter some 20 yards away, wide open. The wideout made the easy catch and took off across the field, eventually hauled down in the red zone.
“You practice scramble drill all you want, but when you get in that situation, you never know what’s going to happen,” Harrison said.
Instead of a three-and-out to give the Vols a final chance, it just took one more first down to put Heritage Academy in victory formation. For the second time in three weeks, the Pats had fought off the Vols in a close game. This time, they ended Starkville Academy’s season, too.
“It was a pretty good football game to go out on,” Nicholson said. “Hate to lose, and we’ll always hate to lose, but that’s a pretty good football game to go out on. They battled hard from start to finish, the way it’s supposed to be. I’m proud of every one of them, I’m proud I got to coach every one of them, and that’s that.”
While the Vols head home for the winter, the Patriots’ stellar season continues when they host Adams County Christian in the Class 5A semifinals next week at C.L. Mitchell Field.
Heritage Academy beat Pillow Academy 47-14 last year to clinch a berth in the state title game, but Harrison knows he can’t necessarily expect the same when the Rebels come to town.
“It’s a semifinal game,” Harrison said. “It ain’t supposed to be easy.”
Heritage Academy 21, Starkville Academy 19
SA 6 0 7 6 — 19
HA 0 14 7 0 — 21
First quarter
SA — CJ Jackson 1 run (kick failed), clock 4:18
Second quarter
HA — Braden Davidson 10 run (Luke Fisher kick), clock 10:33
HA — Davidson 20 run (Fisher kick), clock 1:25
Third quarter
HA — Jaylan Stewart 39 run (Fisher kick), clock 5:09
SA — Jackson 1 run (John Dylan Miller kick), clock 1:54
Fourth quarter
SA — Colby Allen 1 run (run failed), clock 2:58
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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