With mere seconds left on the clock, the New Hope High School football team had just scored a touchdown that would have sent its game against Clarksdale into overtime.
But a bad decision by a New Hope player denied the Trojans an opportunity in a 29-22 loss in a Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Region 1 game at Trojan Field.
The loss eliminated New Hope (3-6, 1-4 region) from playoff contention.
“This was two evenly matched teams,” New Hope coach Michael Bradley said. “It really came down to a couple of big plays. They had a couple of more big plays than we did, and we had one more big mistake. We scored a touchdown with three seconds left and we had it called back for a holding call. If we had played a few more seconds, we could have won. But that’s high school football.”
Clarksdale’s biggest play came with two minutes remaining when quarterback Cornelius Williams hit Brandon Maiden for an 81-yard pass that lead to the go-ahead touchdown two plays later. The score kept alive Clarksdale’s playoff chances.
“We’re not worried about making the playoffs,” said Clarksdale coach Chuck Reid, whose team improved to 4-5 and 2-3. “It all depends on how we do the next couple of games and how everyone else plays. New Hope fought us pretty hard. It was a pretty evenly matched game.”
New Hope also has two games left on its schedule. It travels Friday to Olive Branch to face Center Hill, which also is 2-3 in the region. A game against West Point at home will close the slate.
“We are just going to continue to try and get better, which has been our goal all season,” Bradley said. “We are now playing for pride. I tell my guys to first and foremost play for the love of the game. After that, I tell them to play for school pride. Playoffs are the last thing we play for. They are going to have remember the reason they played football when they were little kids because they love the game.”
For Bradley, getting better will include eliminating mistakes this week at practice. The Trojans were penalized six times for 65 yards, including the holding call that kept them from scoring.
“We are going to have to work on our mistakes this week,” Bradley said. “We have been working on them all year long. Yes, we lost a lot of yards to penalties Friday night. The guys are going to have play smarter and be more disciplined. We can’t continue to be our own worst enemies. Being our own worst enemy has been our biggest problem all year.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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