OXFORD — A game that looked out of reach multiple times came down to two drives late in the fourth quarter as Starkville fell, 33-28, to Oak Grove in the first-ever Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 7A state championship game.
The Yellow Jackets, down 14-6 at the half to the Warriors, trailed by 13 points with less than five minutes left, but a seven-yard touchdown pass to Jontavious Rogers from quarterback Trey Petty, plus the ensuing two-point conversion, cut the score to five points.
Starkville’s first chance at a game-winning drive came with 2:25 left and the Jackets starting on their own 35-yard line, but they went three-and-out, recording just two yards.
A costly timeout on that drive allowed the Warriors to run the clock down to about 30 seconds left, giving the Jackets one last chance at glory, but that came up short as Oak Grove took home the title with a 33-28 win.
“That’s who we are,” head coach Chris Jones said. “We’re resilient, but at the end of the day, we didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. We fought. That’s all you can ask for.”
Unlike last season’s state championship game for the Yellow Jackets, where Starkville (10-4) very much dominated the pace of play from the beginning, that wasn’t the case on Saturday night.
Oak Grove (13-1) was the team in control from opening kickoff, storming out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and never looking back.
Warriors senior quarterback and Texas A&M commit Anthony “AJ” Maddox didn’t have the flashiest game of his career, going 15-of-20 with 162 yards and one passing touchdown, and Oak Grove’s 284 total yards for one of the best offenses in Mississippi didn’t seem indicative of a state title win.
Where the Warriors might have struggled offensively, however, their defense took center stage, first with a 63-yard pick-six from Jalen Owens on Starkville’s opening drive and second with neutralizing Petty.
“I’m proud of my guys, man,” Jones said. “You win some, you lose some, but we fought hard. Nothing to be ashamed of. We lost to a really good team.”
Usually one of the most explosive players in the state, Petty completed just 36 percent of his passes in the loss, throwing for 138 yards and three touchdowns.
While he did finish with four total touchdowns, including one on the ground, Petty recorded less than 200 yards of total offense while Starkville managed just 271 yards of total offense as a team in the loss.
The Jackets will almost certainly look back at those two drives at the end of the game of what could have been as the quest for back-to-back state championships came to a crushing end.
“I appreciated them,” Jones said. “They’ve done a lot for this program. There’s no reason to hang your head. Sometimes, it’s life. … We’ve been through a lot. We won a lot of games. We won a championship. We lost a championship … At the end of the day, the sun will rise tomorrow and we’ll be alright.”
Oak Grove 33, Starkville 28
Starkville (10-4) 0 6 8 8 – 28
Oak Grove (13-1) 14 9 14 3 – 33
First quarter
OG — Kylin Champagne 1 run (Luke Stewart kick), clock 6:56
OG — Jalen Owens 63-yard interception return (Stewart kick), clock 5:11
Second quarter
S — Trey Petty 7 run (two-point failed), clock 6:22
OG — Stewart 35 field goal, clock 2:43
S — Braylon Burnside 49 pass from Petty (two-point failed), clock 0:48
OG — Damari Jefferson 31 pass from AJ Maddox (kick failed), clock 0:15
Third quarter
OG — Nehemiah Taylor 3 pass from Jefferson (Stewart kick), clock 5:32
S — Philip Swann 41 pass from Petty (Petty two-point), clock 2:57
Fourth quarter
OG — Stewart 20 field goal, clock 8:09
S — Jontavious Rogers 7 pass form Petty (Petty to Jaiden Turnipseed two-point), clock 4:15
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