MACON — Noxubee County High School easily made it a clean sweep for the Magnolia state schools in the Mississippi-Memphis Gridiron Classic Saturday evening.
After a thorough domination of Class 5A favorite Starkville in the opening week with the run game, Noxubee County (2-0) used nearly every offensive weapon in their arsenal to blowout Craigmont (Tenn.) High School 45-13.
“In order for us to be undefeated this season, at that’s our goal, we have to be a complete football team,” Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter said.
The Tigers pass rush forced Craigmont quarterback Andrew McIntyre in several off-balanced throws into multiple coverage. Three of those ill-advised passes would be intercepted with one of them easily taken back to the end zone by #23.
“We have two sophomores and a junior in that secondary so it’s nice to see them step up and make some plays,” Shorter said. “That quarterback made some throws he certainly didn’t want to make and that was the idea from the start.”
Just like last week against Starkville’s inexperienced offensive line, Noxubee County was able to harass the opponent’s backfield on nearly every snap making a vertical passing game down the field nearly impossible. Craigmont (0-1) was forced to try desperation passes that hung in the air long enough for Noxubee County defensive backs to make a play on.
Craigmont’s only scoring drive of the evening came off two deflected passes that landed in the waiting arms of wide receiver Nikelle Jackson allowing the drive to continue.
Noxubee opened up its passing game more than its showed last week in its 29-8 victory at Starkville allowing senior quarterback DeAngelo Ballard to roll out in order to find open receivers on long passes down the field. The Tigers signal caller, who missed the final half of last year due to a broken leg, finished with 155 yards through the air and two touchdowns in just three quarters of action.
“Our receivers really grew up tonight and played a major role,” Shorter said. “It was a long list of guys that were involved and it just makes everything look easy.”
In its first two contests of the 2012 season, Noxubee County has seriously put themselves in the discussion to be the North Half favorite in Class 4A football in Mississippi by outscoring its opponents 74-31.
Craigmont, who was playing its first game of the 2012 season, couldn’t stop turning the football over to the Tigers defense as three Chiefs first-half turnovers quickly became 20 points for Noxubee County.
After stuffing Craigmont’s running game on fourth down deep in their own 10-yard-line, Noxubee County proceeded to conduct a six-play, 94-yard drive before the end of the first half. The possession, which was highlighted by a 75-yard pass from Darrell Robinson from Ballard, would end with Robinson plunging in to make it 33-7 before halftime.
Noxubee County didn’t lose the momentum coming out of the locker room as the Tigers went 65 yards on 11 plays on the first possession of the second half. The drive would conclude with Robinson’s second touchdown of the evening to make it 39-7.
Shorter would remove most of his first-string offense from the contest with 1 minute, 21 seconds left in the third quarter.
In the first game of the Mississippi-Memphis Gridiron Classic. Louisville High School came from two touchdowns down in the fourth quarter to pull out a dramatic 42-41 victory over Ridgeway (Tenn.) High School.
With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Louisville quarterback Wyatt Roberts found Desmond Goss in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown pass. After a hurry-up drive by Ridgeway put the football in the red zone with two seconds left, Ridgeway missed a 25-yard field goal wide left as time expired. Noxubee will be at home against next week when the Tigers host New Hope High School Friday night in a battle between a pair of undefeated teams.
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