Following Heritage Academy’s 38-7 loss to Indianola Academy at home Friday, coach Barrett Donahoe pulled aside his seniors for a special message: there’s still a season to be had.
“I told the seniors out here–‘What do you want to do? Do you want to take ’em off for the last time? Your effort next week and the job that we do next week will determine what happens the following week and whether or not we continue to play,'” Donahoe said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what attitude we come out with and the fire that we have on Monday. We’ll find out what we’re made of, we’ll find out if we still want to continue to play.”
The Patriots (4-5, 1-1 MAIS AAA District 2) ran into the top ranked AAA program in the MAIS Friday, undefeated Indianola Academy Friday night, but they still control their fate. A win over Leake Academy Friday night will put the team in the Class AAA playoffs.
The Patriot’s defense kept the Patriots alive early. First quarter interceptions by Robert Brown and Tyler Anderson kept the Colonels off the board, but the Heritage offense was unable to punch in early opportunities.
“I thought our players played hard, and you know, it was a 14-0 game at half and to be honest with you, we had our chances in the first half to make things happen for us,” Donahoe said. “When we got tight in there we weren’t able to capitalize a couple of times and able to put points on the board and that hurt us.”
Heritage got on the board in the third quarter when senior quarterback Dylan Barker lobbed a pass to the endzone where Dylan Hughes high-pointed the ball and came down with the score. But Indianola would put up 17 straight points to finish the game.
“Coming out after the half, they decided to mash on us a little bit and they’re big and physical,” Donahoe said. “They have some really nice looking football players and they’re a pretty dadgum solid team. I was very pleased with our effort, we’ve just got to be better at different aspects of the game.”
Barker poses a dual threat at quarterback. He used his 6-2 size and speed to rush for a team high 85 yards and added 54 more and a touchdown through the air.
“He’s been fantastic,” Donahoe said of his senior leader. “He’s running the ball well, he throws the ball well. You know they put a lot of pressure on us. Their linebacking corps are some of the biggest and most physical I’ve seen in a while, they put some pressure on us and did some really good things. But I think Dylan, the job that he’s done has been remarkable.”
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