As the season nears the beginning of conference games, New Hope ended a two-game losing streak with a dominant win last Friday on the legs of its quarterback, but for Columbus and West Lowndes, each team suffered another heartbreaking loss.
New Hope 63, Houston 18
Just about everything went right for the Trojans on offense Friday as the team bulldozed its way over visiting Houston in a record-setting 63-18 victory over the Hilltoppers.
New Hope’s 63 points are a program record for most points scored in a game, and most of them were produced by sophomore quarterback Tyrekus Brooks. He found running lanes inside and outside the tackles with ease and exploded for 223 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 13 carries, including long scoring runs from 34, 76 and 50 yards. Running back Jacob Jefferson also helped carry the offensive load behind a performance of 125 yards on 19 carries for one touchdown.
New Hope pulled away right out of the gate, scoring three times in the first quarter and taking a 42-10 lead to halftime. The team added two more touchdowns in the third and one more in the fourth to close out an “important” victory that ended a three-week stretch of having to dwell on losses. After a loss to Choctaw County on Sept. 5, the team went into a bye week then came on and dropped a 36-28 contest to Brother Martin before bouncing back last Friday.
“It was three straight weeks right there of having a bad taste in our mouths, so it was very important for us to do what we needed to do from a schematic standpoint and really an execution standpoint of being able to get that bad taste out of their mouths,” head coach Allen Glenn said.
The Trojan’s defense also turned in a strong performance. Houston quarterback Elias Cardwell was intercepted three times, twice by Jerome Wilson and once by Brycen McBeath, and the Hilltoppers were held to just 33 yards rushing.
“(Houston) had come out and and they did some things completely different than they had shown on film, so really proud of (assistant) coach (Nathan) Kendrick and his staff on the defensive side really adjusting to something they really had not shown at all,” Glenn said. “They came out, and basically after the first drive and threw the football almost every snap. We were able to adjust on the back end and make some calls and keep them at bay.”
New Hope (2-2) plays at Saltillo Friday for its last nonconference game then begins District 1-5A play against Lafayette on Oct. 10. Allen said last week’s win brought some much needed juice back to the team.
“I think anytime you win a football game you want to be able to carry over the momentum over to the next week, but really we have to continue to focus on us because there’s a lot of things we can improve on as a team too moving forward,” Glenn said. “We’re by no means a finished product, we’re definitely a work in progress and we’re playing a really good football team in Saltillo this week that we’ll have to definitely go and play our best football game.”
Neshoba Central 17, Columbus 6
Another week, another tough loss for Columbus, which fell to 1-4 on the season Friday in another close loss decided in the final minute.
Trailing 10-6 late in the fourth quarter, a pass interference call on the Falcons’ secondary negated a huge fourth-down stop and allowed the Rockets to keep their drive alive in the waning moments of the game. Instead of getting the opportunity to go down the field and win the game, the penalty pushed Neshoba deeper into the red zone and it capitalized by scoring a touchdown in the final minute of play to seal their win.
“It was a well-called game. I thought the referees did a good job, but in that one instance, that call didn’t go our way,” head coach Barrin Simpson said. “I thought the kid made a great play on the pass on 4th-and-7 and we got a pass interference call when we actually deflected the ball. … It kind of took the wind out of our sails.”
Dkyren Henderson plunged in the Falcons’ only score in the third quarter, but the team couldn’t add the PAT, something else that has plagued them all season.
“I don’t think we’ve converted one all year long and that puts you behind the 8-ball a little bit,” Simpson said.
There are many things to point to when it comes to figuring out how to get into the win column, but Simpson said it all starts on offense and getting into the end zone, something the team has only done on offense twice this season.
“Our guys have to find a way to play to get us going,” Simpson said. “Not enough playmaking happening to get the ball into the end zone. We have some guys out offensively due to suspension, not doing what they’re supposed to, and those kind of things will get you out of whack. When guys are not upholding the standard of the program and they are having to sit out a game for getting into trouble or getting suspended, you lose some of your firepower. But still, you have to find a way to make plays to win ball games.”
Penalties aren’t helping either. The Falcons’ defense ended up returning a fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter that would have given them the lead, but a player lost his helmet during the action and still pursued the ball instead of backing out of the play and a flag for illegal participation wiped away the score.
“(Once you lose your helmet) you’re supposed to stop for the safety of the player, he wasn’t even the kid who recovered the ball, but it was the right call,” Simpson said.
Columbus has this week off and will begin District 1-5A play on Oct. 10 by hosting Caledonia. Simpson said the bye week will provide an opportunity for his staff to come together and fix some things that need their attention.
“I think we are going to have to change up some stuff to kind of get us in an offensive rhythm and an offensive flow,” he said. “We are going to have to get some drive starters going and do some of the things we haven’t shown throughout the non-district play to try to jumpstart our offense and get into a rhythm where we can start to put some points on the board. I think we are playing well enough defensively and special teams-wise to win ball games, we just have to get that third phase going.”
Hatley 20, West Lowndes 16
The Panthers were leading Hately 16-14 late in the fourth quarter and were about to begin a drive to run out the clock when disaster struck.
Backed up in West Lowndes territory, a bad snap sailed over the head of the Panthers’ quarterback and was recovered in their end zone by the Tigers to steal the lead in the waning minutes. The Panthers quickly drove down the field to try and retake the lead, and quarterback Kadon Burton threw a pass to Anquarius Outlaw, who covered 20 yards but was tackled at the Tigers’ 1-yard line when the clock hit zero for the team’s second straight loss.
“Turnovers and penalties have been killing us all year,” head coach Anthony King said. “The team is playing hard, playing physical. We’ve been running the ball on people, we just shoot ourselves in the foot by getting too many penalties at the wrong time.”
The Panthers trailed 8-0 at halftime before pulling back ahead 16-8 in the third quarter, and struggled late to run the ball when running back Kylan Ellis went down with a knee injury and missed all of the fourth quarter due to soreness.
“That’s what kind of messed us up,” he said. “We really don’t have any depth.”
King said Ellis didn’t sustain anything serious and will be ready to play Friday at Mantachie, the team’s last nonconference game.
“(Mantachie) is a 3A school, It should be a physical match,” King said. “I’d like to see the team get a ‘W.’ We thought we should have won the game on Friday and bounce back to .500, but if we can get a win over Mantachie that would be much improved heading into district play. We feel we are still a pretty good team and want to be playing pretty good ball when it’s playoffs time.”
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