CALEDONIA — Caledonia High School had once again driven into opposition territory, but once again, the visiting defense had other plans. An option run to the outside was closed down quickly by the Itawamba Agricultural defense, and quarterback Daniel Wilburn Jr. opted to pitch before he was brought down.
The problem was the option had already been accounted for, and the pitch was swatted and caught by a surging Zach Harris. The defender took it the distance for the final Itawamba score of an incredibly frustrating game for Caledonia.
Cavaliers head coach Michael Kelly was livid, breaking his clipboard over his knee before gathering himself and planning for the next drive. He had good reason to be upset, with Murphy’s law in full effect against his offense on the night.
Itawamba (9-0) continued its winning run against Caledonia (3-6), winning 34-7 on the road in a game where they weren’t always at their best but still managed the game expertly. The visitors were aided, however, by some Cavaliers mistakes and a couple big penalties.
“I think it’s penalties, missed execution. We look good on three plays then look like crap on two plays — can’t have that nine weeks into the season; it’s time to execute,” Kelly said. “Some of those penalties you can chalk up to the refereeing in Mississippi sucks. You can put it in the paper just like that.”
Kelly was clearly frustrated at times in the game, and it seemed like every time Caledonia finally got something going on offense, there would be a flag hitting the ground soon after. One play in particular, Jacob Huff took an option pitch around the right edge and ran about 50 yards before being pushed out of bounds. It would have set the team up in the red zone, but a late flag for holding was thrown on the run, canceling out most of the gain.
There were at least two other drives where chunk plays were canceled out by penalties, but failure to convert on third and fourth down didn’t help, either.
When asked what the message is to the team after the loss, it was a simple answer for Kelly.
“It’s a real simple message,” he said. “We didn’t play well, and we didn’t coach well. This is what the results are: bad.”
With just one game left in the regular season, and a senior night game at that, there is hope that the Cavaliers can win and get back above .500 in district play. If they can clinch a playoff spot, they’ll have given themselves something to fight for despite a disappointing campaign.
“I’d like to see us bounce back,” he continued. “Ain’t nothing we can do about this game now; we’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got to respond. We’re a young team; right now we’re about an average team. When you play good teams, you have to play really well, and I just don’t think we put our 100 percent performance into it, and we need to get that done.
“We’re on a short week now, have about three days of work. The guys know what to do. We have to come out here and execute; we need to put them in the best position to do it. Then try and get ourselves in the playoffs, get a good seed, hopefully have a playoff game the next week. If we get in the dance, who knows what happens.”
Caledonia gets its chance to get in the dance next week, hosting Shannon at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Itawamba Agricultural 34, Caledonia 7
Itawamba Agricultural (9-0) 7 13 7 7 — 34
Caledonia (3-6) 0 0 0 7 — 7
First quarter
IA — Ty Davis 10 run (Brantley Wiygul kick), clock 9:18
Second quarter
IA — Zion Ashby 58 pass from Davis (Wiygul kick), 10:11
IA — Jabari Shumpert 3 run (kick failed), 4:18
Third quarter
IA — Layth Holiday 5 pass from Davis (Wiygul kick), 1:54
Fourth quarter
IA — Zach Harris 65 fumble return (Wiygul kick), 10:00
C — Daniel Wilburn Jr. 26 run (Reed Frady kick), clock 2:55
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