PONTOTOC — For coach Sean Harrison and the Heritage Academy football team, 35 is typically the magic number.
According to the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools rulebook, a lead of that size in the first half triggers an automatic running clock to begin the third quarter. If the Patriots have that milestone in reach, they’ll go for it.
Such was the case Friday when Heritage Academy lined up to go for two with a 40-7 lead at South Pontotoc and 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Quarterback Mack Howard found Luke Fisher on the conversion try, and just like that, the Pats were up 35.
But when the third quarter started, the clock didn’t run. Only when South Pontotoc’s Braxton Morphis scored a long and ultimately meaningless touchdown with just over 5 minutes to go, cutting the lead to 28, was the running clock put in place.
After all, Harrison wasn’t thinking about the host Cougars’ Mississippi High School Activities Association membership. In Pontotoc on Friday night, the MAIS handbook no longer applied.
“I’m used to our rule of 35,” Harrison said.
It was just about the biggest worry Heritage Academy (4-0) faced in a 42-21 rout of South Pontotoc (0-3), a final score that belied the Patriots’ superiority throughout the night.
Only two late Cougars touchdowns prevented on paper what a sizable crowd witnessed in person: more dominance from a Heritage Academy team that beat an MHSAA squad handily on the road for the second straight Friday night.
The Patriots beat East Union 41-15 last week in Blue Springs and now have won all four of their games by at least 18 points. Only against Jackson Prep on Aug. 27 did they fail to score 40 points. They had 39 instead.
“Each game, we’ve blown out every team in the first half,” Howard said. “It’s just kind of a mindset of what we’re going to do. That’s our goal: to end the game in the first half.”
Consider it mission accomplished for the Patriots on Friday. Trey Naugher’s pick-six inside the first minute set the tone, Howard’s 7-yard keeper two minutes later doubled the lead, and two key scores late in the half kept Friday’s game from ever being close.
Howard found running back Luke Fisher for a 14-yard touchdown with 1 minute, 36 seconds to go in the half before a costly South Pontotoc fumble deep in Cougars territory. It took only 25 seconds for the Pats to strike again on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Howard to Mitchell Woodard.
“I thought he threw some great balls tonight,” Harrison said of Howard, who had three passing scores to go with his rushing touchdown and didn’t turn the ball over once. “Being able to throw the ball and stretch the field — vertically, horizontally, wherever you want to put it — puts a lot of stress on the defense.”
Howard came out firing with the second-quarter gun when the Patriots, leading 14-0, received a punt at their own 16-yard line early in the period. The junior connected with Naugher deep down the right sideline on the first play and found Woodard down the left sideline on the next, setting up a 2-yard touchdown run by Fisher shortly afterward.
It was a drive that practically begged for the renaming of South Pontotoc’s Mack Stegall Field to, well, Mack Howard Field.
“I think Mack did a good job of taking what they gave him,” Harrison said. “I’m not necessarily one to want to throw the ball 40 yards every single play, but he took what they gave him.”
Howard and the rest of the Patriots’ starting offense exited stage left to the bench two plays into the fourth quarter. Trace Ash intercepted backup Thomson Regimbal to set up a 64-yard touchdown scamper by Morphis, and a high snap eluded two Patriots to set up a short South Pontotoc score, but the Cougars’ efforts were too little, too late.
Heritage Academy had a comfortable win against an opponent for whom the Pats had only three days to prepare. Their original foe, Washington School, canceled Monday night; on Tuesday afternoon, Cougars coach Rod Cook called Harrison to say his team had an open date.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to work on ourselves, go back to fundamentals, go back to some plays and such that we hadn’t worked on since two-a-days,” Harrison said. “I really appreciate them having us and agreeing to the game. That was huge for us.”
Howard said playing a second straight public school helped the Patriots measure themselves against the Cougars’ superior physicality. Heritage Academy has passed those tests, going 4-0 against MHSAA programs dating back to the 2019 season.
“I feel like at Heritage, we don’t care who we’re going to play,” Howard said. “We think we can compete with anybody in the state, and we’re not going to back down just because they’re a public school.”
The Pats didn’t back down Friday night in another tune-up for a contest Howard and Harrison called, respectively, the best and biggest week of the year: a home game against rival Starkville Academy on Sept. 17.
“If that won’t get you excited, I don’t know what will,” Howard said.
Heritage Academy 42, South Pontotoc 21
Heritage Academy (4-0) 14 28 0 0 — 42
South Pontotoc (0-3) 0 7 0 14 — 21
First quarter
HA — Trey Naugher 20 interception return (Todd Sharp kick), 11:13
HA — Mack Howard 7 run (Sharp kick), 9:11
Second quarter
HA — Luke Fisher 2 run (Sharp kick), 10:32
SP — Cody Stutsy 11 run (Noah Fleming kick), 9:09
HA — Naugher 30 pass from Howard (Sharp kick), 7:49
HA — Fisher 14 pass from Howard (kick failed), 1:36
HA — Woodard 17 pass from Howard (Fisher pass from Howard), 0:21
Fourth quarter
SP — Braxton Morphis 64 run (Fleming kick), 5:24
SP — Morphis 1 run (Fleming kick), 0:26
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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