COLUMBUS — Starkville Academy secured a big win in district play on Friday night, traveling to Columbus and beating rivals Heritage Academy, 30-27. It was the second year in a row the Vols came away with the win over their neighbors and sets up a big game against Magnolia Heights next week for a potential district championship.
“It’s big any time it’s a district win, Heritage, rivalry game, sets us up to go play Mag for an important game,” Starkville Academy head coach Chase Nicholson said. “There’s so much around it, but it’s the most important game we played this week and that’s what matters. That’s our mentality. We’re excited now, but tomorrow it’s a whole new week.”
The Patriots (5-4) lost their third straight game, and head coach Tobias Smith took the game as an example of the value of small moments. Penalties and missed assignments hurt his team down the stretch, and it’s been the case for a few weeks now after a promising start to the season.
“A lot of the time we look at the big picture of things, but it’s the small things that get you beat or win games,” Smith said. “When we were on a winning streak we did the small things, we need to get back to doing what we do best and get back to those small things that helped us win.”
The Vols (4-5) were able to score through the air thanks in part to the connection between quarterback Luke McKenzie and receiver Blake Little.
Little was anything but on the night for the Vols, hauling in three touchdowns, including a toe-tapper in the end zone, setting his team up with nice field position on punts and kickoffs, and perhaps most importantly pouncing to intercept a pass in the first quarter to set up his team’s first scoring possession.
“They were doing a lot of crossing routes, I saw one and just went for it,” Little said of the interception, which got his team in the game early.
The Patriots came out swinging with an onside kick and quick score by senior Adyn Westmoreland and looked set to drive again when Little snagged Thompson Regimbal’s pass out of the air.
“He’s an impact player,” Nicholson said of Little. “He’s a guy that’s got to touch the ball and it’s pretty easy when they kick the ball to him, or throw it to him and we can get him touches like that.”
The Vols took a 16-7 lead into halftime before the Patriots responded quickly, with Westmoreland running in two touchdowns in the third quarter to give Heritage a 23-19 lead.
McKenzie and the Vols offense went back to Little and didn’t look back, finding him on a 34-yard strike over the top of the defense and again on the next drive in the corner of the end zone.
The Vols defense had to stand tall, getting back-to-back fourth down stops inside the five-yard line. The Patriots did pull within three points, but failed to convert the onside kick and the Vols were able to run out the clock.
“Going into this week we’ve kind of struggled on defense,” Little said. “It was good to battle back with everyone in sync, playing as one.”
The Vols now look ahead to their date with Magnolia Heights at home next Friday, meanwhile the Patriots will need a win on the road against Bayou Academy to battle for the third seed in the playoffs.
Smith felt the weight of the loss, but it’s back to business on Monday as they continue to fight for their season.
“You’ve got to have focus in every game, but in a rivalry game especially,” he said. “It was a focused team on the other sideline and you have to be more focused than them, more physical than them and tougher than them. They did those things well tonight and we didn’t.”
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