WEST POINT — Starkville High School defensive coordinator Brooks Oakley likes facing a one-dimensional offense.
That’s what he and his Yellow Jackets defense saw Friday night as they shut down a run-heavy West Point offense to claim a 16-0 victory at McCallister Field.
“We knew we had to stop the run,” Oakley said. “Against them, you’ve got to win first down and get them in second and long. I thought we did that for the most part.”
The Green Wave faced several second- and third-and-longs and couldn’t establish a rhythm, as the Yellow Jackets swarmed to the player with the ball on nearly every play.
Starkville (2-1) prepared all week for the run and only allowed West Point (1-1) to gain only 153 yards of offense, including 107 rushing. The Green Wave ran for 412 yards on 50 carries last week in a 46-7 season-opening victory at Louisville.
West Point sophomore quarterback Marcus Murphy rushed for 153 yards and three touchdowns last week, but he had only 31 yards on 21 carries against Starkville. Sophomore running back Chris Calvert had 87 rushing yards last week, but he only had 23 against Starkville. Dmarrio Edwards led West Point with seven carries for 46 yards. Archie Jones rushed the ball four times for 7 yards.
“Stopping the run is the heart and soul of our defense,” Starkville senior defensive lineman Maleke Bell said.
The Yellow Jackets surrendered runs of 34 and 25 yards, but West Point moved into Starkville territory only four times. Its deepest penetration was the 30-yard line.
“That’s one of the best defenses we’ve seen in years,” West Point 10th-year head coach Chris Chambless said.
Down the entire game, West Point stayed with the run and was 4 of 9 passing for 46 yards.
Along with Bell, the Yellow Jackets have four solid defensive linemen. Seniors Kobe Jones and Lorenzo Dantzler have multiple Division I scholarship offers, while Bell has one from South Alabama. Junior Nelson Jordan is coming into his own and the four have proven to be a hard wall for any offense to run into.
The linebackers fed off the defensive linemen’s play all night and made several tackles at the second level to keep West Point from breaking big runs.
“When the front four is going, it keeps us up,” junior linebacker Willie Gay said. “We’ve just been planning on stopping the run because we knew that was what they were going to do all week.”
In the first three games, opposing offenses have found it hard to run against Starkville. In week one, Starkville allowed 105 rushing yards to Noxubee County in a double overtime loss. It gave up 133 yards to Oxford last week in a victory.
Even so, Bell isn’t happy with allowing that many rushing yards and called it “bad defense.”
“We’ve got a lot of young guys. We’ve got a lot of guys that haven’t played high school football, and now is there time to step up,” Bell said.
Starkville hasn’t allowed a point since early in the first quarter against Oxford. The Chargers’ only score came after an interception that gave them a short field.
The Yellow Jackets’ defense not only stopped the run, but it also set up both offensive touchdowns. After Jaquez Wilson blocked a punt that led to a safety and a 2-0 lead, Starkville’s Tyler Moore recovered a Murphy fumble at the West Point 15-yard line. That led to a 2-yard touchdown from quarterback Montario Montgomery to Bell — his first-career offensive touchdown — with 6 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
“I was supposed to score a touchdown last week, but I blocked too long,” Bell said. “That’s going to be my first, but it’s not going to be my last.”
Jordan recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter that set up a 51-yard touchdown from Montgomery to Rontavis Clark with 3:08 left to go.
Along with the two fumble recoveries, Gay had an interception to give Starkville three forced turnovers.
“They were great,” Starkville first-year coach Ricky Woods said. “They played great all night long. They give up no points against a good football team. We just kept on and kept on.”
Starkville will play host to Kipp Collegiate (Tennessee) next week.
“We’re playing really good, really hard,” Oakley said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go, which is the promising part.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
