WEST POINT — You get the sense the Oak Hill Academy football team is going to be fine tonight without reinforcements.
After all, first-year head coach Chris Craven and the Raiders have found ways to re-invent themselves every week through a series of injuries that has forced the team to play one game — its first game — with its original starting lineup.
That’s why it shouldn’t be anything new at 7 tonight when No. 10 seed Oak Hill Academy (7-3) travels to Flora to face No. 7 seed Tri-County Academy (8-2) in the first round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A-AA playoffs.
Craven will take 14 players on the trip today. As much as he would like to say senior running back/linebacker Drew Riley and junior quarterback Ken Dill will be able to suit up and play key roles, the reality of the situation is two of the team’s top players likely will be on the sidelines. Dill will be signaling plays in to backup quarterback Kaleb Darnell, while Riley will provide moral support, but injuries likely will keep both players out of the game.
“Hats off to them for facing that kind of adversity and getting swapped around and having three different quarterbacks and three different slots,” Craven said. “This guy went to outside linebacker and this guy had to go play cornerback and this guy had to go do that. They had to go out there and do the best they can. I am very proud of them and this football season and what we have accomplished.”
Craven said the season has been “taxing” to have so many players lose games to injuries. The Raiders’ lack of depth — they started the season with 16 players in grades 10-12 — forced Craven to shuffle players to new positions once the injuries hit. He said it was a challenge to show a linebacker how to play cornerback in a week. He said it was even more challenging for nearly all of the players to play four quarters and not have a break, save for a few strategically called timeouts in the first and second halves.
Craven has been at Oak Hill Academy for nearly a decade, so he has watched many of the players mature. He believes they appreciate the hard work that has went into this season and made it even more special than a 7-3 regular season that has earned the program a playoff berth.
“I think they show they appreciate the journey, but years from now it will amaze them,” Craven said.
But Craven doesn’t want the Raiders to be satisfied with what they have accomplished, and he has no reason to believe they will. Even though Oak Hill Academy realize its goal of winning Class A-AA District 2, it has bounced back from tough losses on multiple occasions. It also has earned big wins, including a 31-30 victory at Marshall Academy in which Craven said a number of players showed how much they have grown up.
Craven points to the maturation of every football player as one of the team’s biggest victories this season. He said the ability of sophomore Collins Brown to adjust and take on Riley’s role as primary running back and the development of junior Macon McBrayer into a strong contributor in the backfield has eased the sting of the injuries.
“Collins has done well, and Macon McBrayer is not the same player he was last year, just because he had to step up to the occasion,” Craven said. “Now you go from being in a rotation on one side of the ball and then getting a rest to playing on both sides of the ball the entire time, along with the quarterbacks and the receivers. That is a lot of perseverance in itself to know after that first kickoff you don’t walk off until halftime, and you don’t walk off again until the game is over.”
Craven also credited sophomore John Carver Middleton, the team’s third-string quarterback, for stepping in after Darnell and Dill were hurt. He said he can go down the line and highlight sacrifices and changes each player had to make to give the Raiders a chance to make their limited numbers work. While at times troubling when it came time to finalize a scheme, Craven said all of it has been satisfying because the players have persevered and found a way.
Now his goal and the team’s goal is to win a playoff game to get over the hump of recent teams that have good seasons but lost in the first round.
“If we win round one, we automatically are better than any team all the way up to the last time they won a state championship 25 years ago,” Craven said. “That is a big deal to us. It also is a statement game for us that we want to show we are in the playoffs and we are going to fight for it. I think they have a mentality and an attitude to do that.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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