Earlier this season, Starkville football, in the midst of a two-game losing streak and without starting quarterback Trey Petty, hosted unbeaten Tupelo at home.
The Yellow Jackets were not at full strength and were in a slump as a team, but against arguably their toughest opponent of the season, they held tough and had a chance to tie on their final drive of the game.
Starkville came up short, losing 24-17 as the Yellow Jackets fell to 4-3 on the season.
Since that point, Tupelo has remained unbeaten, but so has Starkville, running the table to secure a playoff spot and defeating Southaven and Clinton to take a five-game winning streak into Friday night’s MHSAA Class 6A semifinal game at Tupelo.
“We just need to be better than we were last time,” Starkville head coach Chris Jones said. “We have to make less mistakes, tackle well, eliminate big plays, just play our style of football and take care of the ball offensively.
“We just have to let the kids go out there and do what they do.”
What the Yellow Jackets (10-3) have done this season has been constant scoring and shutdown defense, a big reason why they’re making a second straight semifinal appearance.
Starkville has averaged 33.3 points a game offensively while giving up 17.4 points to opponents, including 14 or fewer points in five of its last six games.
However, Tupelo (13-0) has exceeded that, scoring over 35 points a game while giving up just 63 points the entire season, 17 of which came in that Starkville game in October.
Starkville has had the best showing of any team this season against Tupelo, something that should make for quite the exciting semifinal on Friday night.
West Point (10-2) at Vicksburg (10-2), MHSAA Class 5A semifinal
After coasting its way to the quarterfinals, West Point survived its biggest scare of the season since it began what was a nine-game winning streak.
Last Friday, the Green Wave hosted Neshoba Central, a rematch of last season’s MHSAA Class 5A semifinal game, one that ended in a 20-14 West Point win.
This time around, the Rockets were in upset mode and quite nearly accomplished the feat on the road, scoring a late touchdown with around two minutes left in the fourth quarter to cut West Point’s lead to 34-33.
An extra point would have tied it, but the Rockets went for glory, trying for a successful two-point conversion. They failed, and West Point survived as a 34-33 winner.
Now, the Green Wave move on and head on the road to face a fellow 10-2 team in Vicksburg in Friday night’s Class 5A semifinal.
“We’re traveling a long way, but we’ve put on our big boy pants and know how to handle it,” West Point head coach Chris Chambless said. “We’ve traveled distances in the past and did just fine. We just have to take care of the football and do our best job at executing and doing what we do.”
Both West Point and Vicksburg pride themselves on defense, with West Point having allowed 16.7 points a game and Vicksburg allowing just 10.6 points per game this season.
The defenses are among the best in the state, but how well both teams can do offensively will make the biggest difference in the end.
The Green Wave are the better offense of the two, scoring 37.8 points a game this season, so if they can get off and running, it could be a long, long night for the Gators.
Noxubee County (9-4) at Amory (12-1), MHSAA Class 3A semifinal
Noxubee County faced its fair share of struggles early this season, getting out to a 2-3 record and struggling mightily as it entered district play.
The ship needed to be righted almost immediately if the Tigers wanted to give themselves a chance as the playoff picture began to form and right the ship they did.
They went on to win four of their last five games of the regular season, going 3-1 in district play to start the playoffs out at home to hopefully keep momentum going.
That trend of success has continued in a big way this postseason, with Noxubee County winning three-straight games, most recently a 32-10 blowout against Kossuth, to reach the semifinals.
In their way is a familiar opponent, Amory, a team the Tigers lost to, 38-22, their lone district loss of the season — one they will look to avenge come Friday night.
“We know they’re going to come out, be well coached and play hard,” Noxubee County head coach Teddy Young said. “We also know that we’re just one win away from being in the game that we wanted to be in before the season started: the state championship game.”
“It’s going to be a hard-fought game, but we just have to take care of business.”
That will be easier said than done for Noxubee County, which will have to face a defense that’s allowed just 11.2 points a game this season.
Both teams can put up points, averaging above 35 points a game on each sideline, but the defense will be the true test of the final outcome of Friday’s game.
Playing on the road is going to be just as difficult, but the Tigers have already done that once this postseason, resulting in a 36-8 win over Independence.
They’ll need to be 2-0 on the road this postseason if they want to compete for a state championship.
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