Under normal circumstances, Kris Pickle would know what to expect from his New Hope High School football team.
But the 2017 season has followed anything but a traditional arc for the Trojans.
Multiple injuries have wreaked havoc with New Hope’s continuity and left it to play a significant portion of the season without its top playmakers. Still, New Hope (5-6) survived to earn the No. 4 seed out of Region 4. Its reward will come at 7 p.m. Friday when it goes on the road to play No. 1 seed Pontotoc (10-1) in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A playoffs.
“I am hoping. Knock on wood for the second time all year we might Tyran (Reed) and Kyree (Fields) in the backfield together in 11 weeks,” Pickle said. “Both of them could have played (last week) against Noxubee (County). You never want to take one on the chin for a reason, but we had to do what we had to do to get healthy.”
New Hope (5-6) is coming off a 48-0 loss to Region 4 champion Noxubee County. Reed, a senior running back, and Fields, a senior quarterback, are expected to be back this week. Pickle said Reed practiced every day leading up to the game against the Tigers. He said Reed tried to convince him to play, but he said the senior running back, who has rushed for 221 yards and four touchdowns in four games, saw the “bigger picture” and realized it was best for him to take another week to get even healthier.
Fields has thrown for 1,131 yards and nine touchdowns in nine games. Senior wide receiver Jeremy Tate, who has given a verbal commitment to Memphis, leads the team with 52 catches for 757 yards and nine touchdowns.
All three weapons haven’t had an opportunity to show what they can do together very often. The last time Reed and Fields played together for a full game was against West Lauderdale on Aug. 25. Pickle hopes it isn’t too late for the Trojans to develop chemistry and to make some noise in 2017.
“The level of confidence the whole teams gets whenever both of those guys is able to play goes a long way,” Pickle said. “You’re talking about two senior leaders. I had a coach tell me this one time, ‘A lot of people look around for somebody to make plays.’ If they aren’t there, it kind of scares them a little bit. If we don’t have those guys there, they wonder who is going to make the play. It just brings the overall confidence level of the team down.
“With those two guys ready to go, I hope they can shake off any rust in practice this week and be ready to roll by Friday.”
Pickle hopes that is the case because he said he was disappointed the Trojans didn’t offer a better showing against the Tigers. He believes seniors like Reed and Fields will help set the tone this week and get everybody mentally and physically prepared.
Pickle said the Trojans have shown flashes of that focus. He said the injuries and personnel changes have made it even more challenging to develop consistency. As a result, Pickle isn’t completely sure what he will see in the postseason, which is an unusual situation to be in after more than three months of practice.
“Is the confidence already too low, or can you rally together and pull together as a group and see what you can do when everybody is healthy?” Pickle said. “We don’t know. We have no idea. I think we can be a really good football team when we have everybody here.
“I have told them for 11 weeks that we haven’t played our best football game. We haven’t put it all together. I am interested to see what we can do. I hope in week 12 we are able to put it all together and we play a great game on defense, a great game on offense, and we are sound in the kicking game and we see what happens. I feel we can be a top 4A team whenever we do that.”
Pontotoc has plenty of common opponents with New Hope, the No. 4 seed from Region 4. Pontotoc beat Houston 41-12 on Aug. 18, defeated Aberdeen 44-24 on Sept. 8, beat Caledonia 30-6 on Oct. 13, and defeated Shannon 28-22 on Oct. 27. The last win clinched a perfect run through Region 2 and a top seed. Pontotoc’s only loss is a 17-0 setback to Class 6A Oxford on Sept. 15.
New Hope beat Houston 35-28 on Sept. 1, lost to Shannon 46-34 on Sept. 8, beat Aberdeen 42-22 on Sept. 15, and beat Caledonia 34-3 on Sept. 22. The Trojans are back in the playoffs in their first season in Class 4A after missing the postseason in their last two seasons in Class 5A.
Last season, Pontotoc beat two-time reigning Class 4A State champion Noxubee County 29-20 in the North State semifinals. It lost to Lafayette 21-14 in the North State title game. Lafayette won the Class 4A State crown.
This season, junior Justin Carter leads the passing game with 1,071 yards and nine touchdowns. Junior running back Immanuel Vance fuels the running game with 931 yards and seven touchdowns. Junior Gabe Harmon is next with 535 yards and six touchdowns, but he hasn’t played since Oct. 20.
Senior Austin Morphis leads the team with 45 catches for 581 yards and nine touchdowns. Sophomore Caleb Hobson has 23 catches for 440 yards and six touchdowns.
The Warriors, who have won six games in a row, have allowed only 133 points and have three shutouts. A group of five seniors leads the defense. Four of them — Ben Zinn (13), Mario Bean (15), Morgan Huey (17), and Hayes Wilson (18) — have double-digit tackles for loss. Huey (115 total tackles) and Morgan (101) have cracked triple digits. Zinn leads the way with nine sacks, while Wilson has a team-high 18 quarterback hurries.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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