Fans rose to their feet as Dontae Gray walked off the field.
Gray had just scored a 46-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and the fans of the Heritage Academy football team gave him a standing ovation as he walked slowly back to his sideline.
Gray finally acknowledged them as he reached his teammates.
“I was tired,” Gray said with a smile. “I was just trying to get to the sideline and get some water, but I appreciated it. It felt great. That was the best moment I’ve ever had on this football team.”
Gray rushed for 300 yards and six touchdowns Friday night to lead fourth-seeded Heritage Academy to a 77-47 victory against 13th-seeded St. Aloysius in the first round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA playoffs at C.L. Mitchell Field.
The 77 points is the most a Heritage Academy team has scored dating back through the 1994 season. It pushed the Patriots’ total for the season to 428 points, which is believed to be the most in a season in school history.
The closest single-game total to the 77-point outburst came in a 60-7 victory against Cruger-Tchula Academy on Oct. 15, 1999. The Patriots scored 414 points in 1999, which is believed to be the highest single-season total prior to this season.
Heritage Academy (9-2) will play host to fifth-seeded Manchester Academy, which beat Cathedral 59-16, at 7 p.m. Friday in the second round.
Gray’s 46-yard touchdown gave the Patriots a 70-41 lead with 8 minutes, 27 seconds remaining.
A possession earlier, Gray scored on a 69-yard touchdown after Logan Sneed recovered a fumble by Antonio Thompson.
Although the Patriots led 56-34, the Flashes (3-8) were doing their best to claw back into the game. Heritage Academy coach Sean Harrison pulled Gray aside before the offense took the field.
“Before that power he scored on, I said, ‘Hey, I need a score.’ He went and got it. He’s strong,” Harrison said.
Gray took the handoff, busted through the offensive line, and juked a defender at the 45-yard line to give himself an open field.
“I just knew I had to score. I wanted to score,” Gray said.
The junior’s first carry — a 10-yard touchdown — gave the Patriots a 13-0 lead. His second carry — a 5-yard touchdown — made it 21-0.
Quarterback Tyler Anderson’s 22-yard touchdown extended the lead to 28-0 after the first quarter.
Anderson said he enjoyed watching Gray run because it made his job easy. He said all he had to do was hand it off and stand back as Gray took over.
“He’s a really good running back, but when you have an offensive line that can open it up like that for him, it makes it easy,” Anderson said. “The thing about Dontae, whenever he hits the open field he’s gone. He was hitting open gaps and making moves on the secondary. He was making moves on the second level, and that allowed him to get touchdowns and a lot of rushing yards.
“He can see the field so good. He’s a natural. He’s been doing it all year for us. Whenever he sees that gap, he hits it so hard and he’s past everybody.”
Anderson was 10 of 22 for 182 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 34 yards rushing on five carries and the one touchdown. He hit Dalton Alexander for a 33-yard touchdown to get the Patriots on the board, hit Brandon Jones for a 21-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and Eli Acker for a 19-yard touchdown before halftime.
Acker hauled in the pass in the back of the end zone and got his foot down before he went out of bounds to give the Patriots a 42-21 halftime lead.
Gray had touchdowns of 9 and 4 yards as the teams traded scores in the third quarter.
Harrison praised Gray’s work ethic and said there has been one time he has talked to him about a lack of effort. In Gray’s defense, Harrison said Gray was “dog tired.”
Harrison felt like his offensive line was going to have the advantage. The school’s first-year head coach was right, as Heritage Academy had 448 yards rushing.
St. Aloysius coach Bobby Smithhart said Heritage Academy was the best offense they’ve played and that his team didn’t have an answer for the running game due to the size and skill of the offensive line.
Gray wasn’t the only one to take advantage of the open running lanes. Wilder Strickland had 65 yards on nine carries, Toby Young had 24 yards on eight carries, and Lukas Bryant had 25 yards on six carries.
“You never know when something like that is going to happen,” Gray said. “We played like we normally play and it just opened up. The offensive line play great. They opened everything up for me and made it easy.”
Jamar Williams had 227 yards rushing on 16 carries, while Antonio Thompson had 107 yards on 22 carries for the Flashes.
Gray, Harrison, and Anderson said they didn’t see Gray’s performance coming in practice or before the game. Anderson said he felt like somebody was going to step up and lead the way. He didn’t know it would be Gray.
As he sat on a training table and talked about his performance, Gray tried in vain to remember a similar performance.
“I think this might be my best game,” Gray said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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