STARKVILLE — Expect the offensive fireworks to continue at 7 Friday night when the Starkville High School football team returns home to play host to Southaven.
The Yellow Jackets, who”ll face the Chargers for homecoming, hope the yardage is as one-sided as their last home game, a 47-14 victory against Tupelo on Oct. 1.
Starkville (5-2, 3-0 Class 6A, Region 1), which has won four games in a row, has averaged 40 points or more in its last three.
Southaven (6-1, 2-1) enters the game as the region”s second-highest scoring team at 38.4 points per game.
But the Yellow Jackets feel they have a blueprint to shut down senior Dominique Harris, one of the state”s top quarterback prospects. Harris has thrown for 24 touchdowns and 1,473 yards this season.
Last week, Harris threw four touchdowns in a 48-34 loss to Tupelo. Harris also threw three interceptions, the first time he”d been intercepted since Week 2.
Starkville High”s defense believes it can draw plenty from the Golden Wave”s methods of defending Harris.
“He sort of reminds me of (Mississippi State quarterback) Chris Relf as far as size, but he just doesn”t run the ball like he does,” linebacker D.J. Jordan said Wednesday. “I think last week it was more what Tupelo did than (Harris) having a bad game. They put pressure on him, and when he”s under pressure he seems like he panics. We”ve got to get to him Friday night.”
Starkville coach Jamie Mitchell, who had his fine for being ejected against Horn Lake overturned Tuesday, said the approach to limiting Harris isn”t that simple.
Southaven has three receivers who average more than 20 yards per catch and two who average more than 35 yards per reception.
The Chargers also have four players with more than 20 carries. Eight receivers have caught passes this year.
If Starkville can find the right balance between coverage and pressure, it will see the result on the scoreboard.
“You”re not going to totally stop them but you hope to contain the big play,” Mitchell said. “We”ve got film from Olive Branch, Columbus, Tupelo, and Douglas (Tenn.), and I think what you do is look at what other people have done and beg, borrow, and steal from what each team was able to do against them. We feel like we”ve got a good scheme. We”re gonna cover sometimes and come after (Harris) sometimes.
“That offense is too good, so you can”t do one or the other too much.”
Guarding against the big play has been Mitchell”s priority in practice this week, and he concedes Harris will get his haul of completions. The key for Starkville”s defensive backs is to tackle well and to keep ball carriers from breaking to the next level.
“An incompletion doesn”t bother Harris,” Mitchell said. “What we”ve got to do is not get rattled when he does completes passes. We”ve got to be able to go on to the next play and try and win a few more than they do.”
Part of Starkville”s motivation stems from a 27-16 loss last year at Southaven in which it committed three turnovers on its half of the field.
The Yellow Jackets entered that game at 3-0 in the region, too. And though the loss still burns for Jordan and many of his teammates, he points out the difference in form.
“We know we could have won that game,” Jordan said. “We”re 10 times better than we were last year, and it”s just even more motivation for us this year.”
Southaven”s defense took a hit last week when defensive backs Randolyn smith and Arron Williams were ejected from the Tupelo game. Smith and Williams, who have 43 tackles and 30 tackles respectively, are suspended for Friday”s game.
“I guess that”s a good thing for us,” Mitchell joked.
The personnel losses come at a bad time for Southaven, which faces an offense just as potent as its own.
Starkville has averaged 246 rushing yards in its last two games, and after watching Tupelo”s Ashton Shumpert run for 282 yards against the Chargers, Mitchell is confident Garrett Smith and Devin Mitchell can do more than help control the clock.
“Tupelo lined up and ran the football right at them,” Mitchell said. “Shumpert had an unbelievable night. It was amazing to watch them take the game over in the second half. I would compare it to our second half against West Point.
“We”ve talked all week about how we need to rush the football. Sounds easy, but if we can occupy the clock and get points out of drives it will be monumental for us.”
NOTE: Running back Preston Baker, who has missed all but one week due to a broken jaw, was cleared Tuesday to return to full contact. Baker will play Friday but mostly on defense as Jakarta Agnew has solidified his spot as the starting tailback, Mitchell said.
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