STARKVILLE — Scrambling back into his own end zone, Oxford senior quarterback John Meagher unloaded a desperation toss into the hands of a leaping Jaylan Ware of Starkville.
The senior defensive tackle’s feet landed on about the 2 yard-line. From there he staggered backward before regaining his balance and powering into the end zone to give his team a 24-0 lead late in Friday’s second quarter at Yellowjacket Stadium.
“He scared me at first,” Starkville head coach Chris Jones said after the game. “He took about two steps the wrong way, but he figured it out.”
That play, or at least Jones’ characterization of it, could pretty much sum up what happened for the Yellow Jackets the rest of the game.
Steps the wrong way: Oxford reeled off the next 17 points to make it a seven-point game midway through the fourth quarter.
Figuring it out: Starkville (1-1) responded with three unanswered touchdowns in the last 5 minutes, 18 seconds en route to a 45-17 victory over the rival Chargers that kept the Little Egg Bowl trophy at home. The win also helped right the ship for the Mississippi High School Athletics Association Class 6A juggernaut Yellowjackets after they dropped a 27-21 Week 1 heartbreaker at Brandon.
“It’s always important to win at home, especially after a loss,” Jones said. “I thought our guys fought tonight and regained the momentum. This was a game that could have gone either way, but we finished.”
With Oxford (1-1) threatening in Starkville territory in the fourth quarter, senior Justice Robinson picked off a Meagher pass and returned it 29 yards to the Oxford 49.
Four plays later, Yellow Jackets junior quarterback Luke Altmyer hit senior receiver Orien Thompson with a 35-yard touchdown strike to make it 31-17.
“That was a dime that (Altmyer) just dropped in there,” Jones said. “(Thompson) had been been wanting the ball all night. He kept saying, ‘I can beat him. I can beat him.’ And I thought that was a great time to take a shot. It’s the kind of play that makes you look good as a coach, but really it was just a big-time play by a big-time playmaker.”
The Chargers turned it over on downs on their next possession. Then Starkville senior Rufus Harvey III scampered 52 yards to the end zone to give his team a 38-17 advantage with 2:36 left. Oxford fumbled away the ensuing kickoff return, which set up a pair of Amariyon Howard rushes — a 74-yard breakaway followed by a 2-yard touchdown — to cap the scoring. Howard finished with 103 rushing yards on 12 attempts, while Harvey tallied 62 rushing yards to go along with 99 receiving yards on eight catches.
“We gave up some big plays down the stretch,” a dejected Oxford head coach Chris Cutliffe said after the game. “I would have liked to have seen us finish a little better.”
Altmyer, who completed 28-of-35 passes for 337 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, hit senior Jatavious Lucious with a 23-yard score to cap the first drive of the game and make it 7-0. Starkville added a 22-yard field goal from senior Peyton Rodgers later in the first and scored two touchdowns in the second quarter — a 51-yard catch by senior Joshua Aka and Ware’s defensive score — to build a 24-0 lead.
Oxford drove down the field and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run by senior J.J. Pegues, who then punched in the two-point conversion to cut the halftime lead to 24-8.
Meagher, who threw for 171 yards and three interceptions, rushed for a third-quarter touchdown to make it 24-14. But the Chargers let a couple of opportunities slip through their fingers, coming away empty handed in the red zone in the opening drive of the third quarter and getting only a field goal out of another key red zone trip in the fourth.
“We didn’t finish some drives,” Cutcliffe said. “But you have to give credit to the Starkville defense for some of that. They made plays and stopped us.”
Defensively, Ware led the Yellow Jackets with 13 tackles, while senior Tyrese Hopkins added 10.
Starkville travels to Class 5A West Point this week.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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