STARKVILLE — Luke McKenzie had little time to stew over the biggest mistake of his young season.
With Starkville Academy leading Chambers Academy by one point late in the first half Friday night, the senior quarterback had the Volunteers in the red zone when he threw an ill-advised pass while trying to escape pressure. Rebels linebacker T.J. Daniel picked it off and had nothing but open field in front of him, returning it 90 yards for a touchdown to give Chambers — which made the four-hour trip from LaFayette, Alabama — a seven-point lead.
But SA got the ball right back, and Blake Little gave the Vols excellent field position by returning the kickoff to the Rebels’ 33-yard line. Two plays later, McKenzie found Joseph Portera deep over the middle for a touchdown that tied the game going into halftime, and he put his team ahead for good in the third quarter with a 50-yard touchdown run. SA held off a late push from Chambers for a 35-31 win.
“He’s the kind of guy (who has) a short memory,” Vols head coach Chase Nicholson said. “We talk about it all the time, and he did a good job with it. He shook it off, bounced back and answered. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Coming off a loss at Lamar last week, SA (1-1) was in for a battle against a Rebels team that finished 12-1 last fall. Chambers (0-1) had little in the way of a passing attack, but they used a whole host of running backs, including Daniel, Jacob Norgard and Luke Tarver, to generate offense. It was Tarver who gave the Rebels the early lead with a 29-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter.
The Vols responded on the first play of the second quarter when senior Luke Johnson found the end zone from six yards out, the first of three touchdowns on the night for the senior. Following an interception and a long return by Landry Parker, Johnson took a direct snap for a one-yard score to give SA the lead for the first time.
“The coaches were pushing us during practice,” Johnson said. “We just came out here and we wanted to prove ourselves as an offense, because our defense was killer last week and we kind of struggled. So we were able to practice really hard and work off our defense being really good, and just come out here and perform and play for each other.”
That Vols’ defense, which picked off three passes in the first half and set up a pair of touchdowns, was being gashed on the ground at times but cleaned things up in the third quarter. After McKenzie’s run put SA on top 28-21, Chambers was moving the ball before a costly penalty ultimately led to a turnover on downs, and the Vols once again took advantage.
SA was about to face a fourth-and-12 at its own 32, but a Rebels defender hit McKenzie after he had thrown the ball, and the roughing the passer call moved the ball close to midfield. Two plays later, Johnson followed his blockers and raced 52 yards to the end zone, giving the Vols a two-touchdown advantage with under six minutes left in the fourth.
“You have to just trust your guys,” Johnson said. “Not bounce it out too quickly and just trust that he’s going to make the block, that’s about all you can do.”
Still, the game was far from over. Chambers took up plenty of time on its next drive but did pull back within one score on a 19-yard touchdown run by Tarver, who also ran in a two-point conversion to make it 35-29 with just over a minute remaining. SA recovered the ensuing onside kick but could not quite run out the clock, then chose to take an intentional safety on fourth down to run more time off.
The Rebels ended up with one last shot at a miracle, but Little pulled down the fourth interception of the night for the Vols’ defense on the final play.
SA is back in action next Friday night at Leake Academy, a team the Vols defeated easily at home last year.
“They came locked in on Sunday ready to go. It was a great week,” Nicholson said. “They were just so focused on trying to get better at all the little things that we’ve worked on. And you could tell, it showed up out here tonight.”
Chambers Academy (0-1) 7 14 0 10 — 31
Starkville Academy (1-1) 0 21 7 7 — 35
First quarter
CA — Luke Tarver 29 run (Kaisen Nix kick), clock 5:15
Second quarter
SA — Luke Johnson 6 run (Nathan Miller kick), clock 11:54
SA — Johnson 1 run (Miller kick), clock 8:35
CA — T.J. Daniel 3 run (kick blocked), clock 5:34
CA — Daniel 90 interception return (Tarver run), clock 1:23
SA — Joseph Portera 33 pass from Luke McKenzie (Miller kick), clock 0:56
Third quarter
SA — McKenzie 50 run (Miller kick), clock 4:32
Fourth quarter
SA — Johnson 52 run (Miller kick), clock 5:46
CA — Tarver 19 run (Tarver run), clock 1:07
CA — Intentional safety, clock 0:10
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