MACON — Turnovers and field position play critical roles in determining the outcome of a football game, but the West Point High School football team showed Friday night that a strong defense can make those things a lot less important.

Twice during the first half at Noxubee County, the Green Wave gave the Tigers the ball in the red zone, and twice the Tigers could not capitalize on their good fortune. Against a strong opponent, that failure is usually fatal.

Such was the case in the latest edition of this annual rivalry game, as the Green Wave used their punishing ground attack to pull away from the Tigers and post a 38-19 victory at Tiger Stadium.

“I was proud of our guys,” West Point coach Chris Chambless said. “We played hard, and we practiced hard.”

Chambless said practicing hard was not an issue despite the Green Wave’s first two games getting canceled.  

“It’s not hard to keep West Point kids focused to go out and play football, no matter what,” he said. 

The defense was certainly focused when it needed to be. It was still a ballgame at 13-0 when a snap sailed over the head of West Point punter Alex Harper, who scrambled to fall on the ball at the Green Wave 20. Sophomore Martavius Wicks immediately gave the Tigers a first-and-goal at the 10, but three plays netted 6 yards before Vernorrius Chaney’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

But that was nothing compared to the next missed opportunity. A scrambling Kahnen Daniels misfired on a pass, and the ball settled into the arms of an alert Demone Cunningham, and the Noxubee County lineman rumbled all the way to the Green Wave 2.

But the Tigers only could go backward from there: a 1-yard loss on first down, a 14-yard sack on second down and an incomplete pass on third down brought up fourth-and-goal from the 17, and Chaney’s pass inside the 5 was broken up by West Point senior Fred McMillian. 

“That was big,” Noxubee County coach Teddy Green said. “Playing a great team like that, we forced the turnovers, and we didn’t capitalize. To beat a team like that you’ve got to capitalize when you get the opportunities that we had in the first half.”

Conversely, when it was West Point getting an opportunity, it often turned into points. Senior Chris Dean recovered a fumble for the Green Wave at the Noxubee County 38, and it took just one play for Cameron Young to open the scoring with a touchdown run at the 6:03 mark of the first quarter.

The visitors cashed in on another turnover late in the third. Chaney, who found a rhythm on the Tigers’ previous possession and led them to their first touchdown, was picked off by West Point senior Fred McMillian to give the Green Wave the ball at the NC 35. The effects of West Point’s punishing ground game showed on the six-play drive capped by Young’s 4-yard run that made the score 32-6 and turned the fourth quarter into garbage time.

But the outcome had been in doubt when Noxubee County finally got on the scoreboard. Taking the ball at the Tigers 20, Chaney completed three consecutive passes for 48 yards and, after an incompletion, found Antonio Fowler for 23 yards to the Green Wave 9. After three incompletions, a fourth-down pass interference penalty gave the Tigers another shot, and Chaney spun in from 4 yards out to make it 19-6. 

“The guys just calmed down,” Green said. “We just started going through our progressions, the quarterback started reading the defense better, the offensive line started picking up on the blitzes. We just started playing our brand of football.”

The problem for the Tigers was that West Point has its own brand of football, which is to pound away and wear down an opponent.

“We’re going to run it right at you and see how you handle it,” Chambless said. “That’s our forte; that’s what the kids want to do. They don’t want to come out here and throw the ball all over the place. They want to come out here and run it right at people and knock people off the ball. That’s what they have fun doing.”

But what could have been the back-breaking score was a pass at the end of the first half. Immediately after the Tigers were turned aside after the Cunningham interception, the Green Wave embarked on an 11-play 83-yard drive. Daniels shook off an intentional grounding call on second-and-goal and found Jamarquez Melton in the front corner of the end zone. Melton made a nice leaping catch with 15 seconds left, and the Green Wave took a 19-0 lead into intermission.

The Tigers made the score look more respectable with two big plays during the fourth quarter: a 69-yard Chaney-to-Anthony Little TD pass and a 57-yard scoring play from Chaney to Fowler. And while the Tigers weren’t fooled by the final score, they also know they spent most of the first half holding their own against a team that is gunning for its fifth state title in six years.

“They know they went toe to toe against a great team,” Green said. “We just didn’t play well in all phases. First half, offensively we didn’t play well. Second half we played better, but our defense got a little tired.

“They know we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We had a lot of mental mistakes on our end that we can’t have playing anybody.”

The Tigers will travel to Shannon this Friday, while the Green Wave has a week off before hosting Lafayette on Sept. 24

West Point 38, Noxubee County 19

West Point (1-2)  13  6  13   6 — 38

Noxubee County (1-2)   0  0   6  13 — 19

First quarter

WP — Cameron Young 38 run (kick failed), 6:03

WP — Keshawn Henley 10 run (Alex Harper kick), 2:11

Second quarter

WP — Jamarquez Melton 19 pass from Kahnen Daniels (kick failed), :15

Third quarter

NC — Vernorrius Chaney 4 run (pass failed), 5:45

WP — Henley 44 run (Harper kick), 3:37

WP — Young 4 run (kick failed), :29

Fourth quarter

NC — Anthony Little 69 pass from Chaney (pass failed), 10:51

WP — 1 run (run failed), 4:56

NC — Antonio Fowler 57 pass from Chaney (Jakelvius Span kick), 1:16

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