Region games began last week for some area teams and West Point and New Hope both started out their season victorious in Region 1-5A. In Macon, the Tigers fell just short against Winona.
West Point 50, Pontotoc 13
The Green Wave continued their nonconference slate dominance into Region 1-5A play Friday by cruising past the Pontotoc Warriors behind a stellar rushing attack.
Jaylen Hall rumbled for 188 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries, Michael Williams added three more scoring plunges, Brysceon Hoskins caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Colt Whitacre and Kingston Branham scored a rushing touchdown to extend West Point’s undefeated streak to six games on the season – the program’s best start since their 2017 undefeated run to a state championship.
“We were preaching all week, we were undefeated in the non-region play, and that’s good, don’t take it the wrong way, we’re excited about what we’ve been able to do, but it doesn’t have anything to do with a state championship,” head coach Brett Morgan said. “Our end goal is a state championship every year in this program. We’re not getting into the part of the schedule where it has a direct impact and implications on playoffs, which impact the state championship. It was the first opportunity we had to go out and play a district game. … We’re trying to preach as coaches that those first five (wins) were great, but we hadn’t done anything toward what we want to accomplish or get done. I was proud with how we responded. We came out with hunger and the right mindset and the right attitude. I thought we really approached the game the right way and am proud of the performance we had.”
It wasn’t a perfect performance for West Point, and Morgan pointed to some communication issues and other items on offense and defense he team needs to solve before squaring off with Lafayette at home on Friday.
“We’ve got to play better in some areas on special teams. We had some issues on offense and defense as well that we’re trying to get cleaned up and a lot to learn from it. We have to keep learning. I hope that we can keep winning and learning from wins rather than learning from losses.”
New Hope 42, Lafayette 27
A fumble on the game’s opening kickoff left the Trojans in a 7-0 hole early against the Commodores in their first Region 1-5A game of the season, but they weren’t worried.
New Hope tacked on a first-quarter touchdown to tie the game then exploded for 22 points in the second quarter to help produce a wide enough margin to capture its third victory in a row.
Quarterback Tyrekus Brooks led the way with two touchdown throws to Jerome Wilson on 7-of-8 passing for 174 yards and also picked up 175 yards on 17 carries for one score. Running back Jacob Jefferson added a touchdown run, and Jeremiah Harkins punched in two more scoring scrambles.
“It was an all-around good night offensively,” head coach Allen Glenn said. “I thought we were pretty efficient; we were 7-of-8 passing and then we ran the ball really well as well.”
The majority of the game was a back-and-forth affair that wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter. Lafayette, which scored a touchdown in each of the first three quarters, only trailed 29-21 heading into the final frame where the Trojans outdueled the Commodores 13-6 to produce a 1-0 record to begin conference games.
“You’re at this time of the year where each week is its own season,” Glenn said. “Every coach likes to say, ‘Your goal every week is to go 1-0 each week,’ but once you get into division play that’s reality, to be 1-0 at the end of each week. When that one is over you move on to the next one, because in our league there is no looking ahead. We play in a very tough league so it’s very important to get the first one under your belt, but you also know in the back of your mind that everything moving forward will be a tall task every week.”
Lafayette’s loss snapped a three-game winning streak and was their second defeat by the Trojans in two years – New Hope has scored 42 points in both wins. Powered by their ground game, the Trojans have scored over 60 points twice and went over the 40-point mark two other times this season – but there’s still much to work on within the team.
Their defense hasn’t been incredibly stout, holding foes to an average of 29 points a game, and turnovers have reared their ugly head on occasion. The Trojans lost two fumbles in the game, and one led to a score for the Commodores while the other killed a drive when the game was tight. That just can’t be the standard, Glenn said.
“(We) have to win the turnover battle because there’s not many times you win a football game fumbling the opening kickoff and then having another turnover in the game, too,” he said. “Data proves that doesn’t happen a lot. Defensively, I thought there were times when we played really well, and at times I think we showed our youth in some areas as well. (We) just have to continue to play. It’s a one-week season every week, but defensively I think our guys are doing a really good job coaching our guys up. Our kids are doing a really good job of playing hard, we’re just inexperienced in some spots, so really we just need to continue to have reps defensively for some of our young guys.”
New Hope improved to 4-2 on the season and will continue conference play on Friday by hosting Columbus.
Winona 36, Noxubee County 26
With the game tied heading into the fourth quarter, both Noxubee County and Winona brought out the firepower in the final frame, combining for 31 points, but it was the Tigers of Winona who made more big plays last Friday to secure its third-straight win over the Tigers of Macon to begin Region 4-3A play.
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