WEST POINT — In an ever-changing world, a constant over much of the past two decades has been West Point football.
The 11-time state champions have set a standard among Mississippi High School Athletics Association Class 5A schools, winning six state titles since moving up a classification in 2009.
In that time, the Green Wave have lost eight total district games, going on winning streaks of 36 and 18 over that time period.
Their most recent streak, however, came to an end last week at the hands of Clarksdale, putting West Point in an unfamiliar situation with a 1-1 district record and 4-3 record overall.
“Any time you’re coming off a loss, your confidence is questioned,” head coach Chris Chambless said. “It’s how you respond to that, and that’s been the question to our guys this week; ‘How are you going to respond to not playing well last week?’”
2020 was the last time West Point lost a district game. In fact, the 2020 season was the last one where the Green Wave had three or more losses in a season overall.
Former district foes returned as the Wildcats and West Point played for the first time since 2016, with Clarksdale earning just its second win in its last nine games played against the Wave.
Defense was the story of the night in a 27-21 loss, and it’s been the focal point of practice this week as West Point welcomes a 4-3 Lafayette team on Friday night.
“Knowing our guys, our guys are going to go out and play hard and compete,” Chambless said. “We’ve had really good practices this week, just focusing on getting better than we were last week. … We didn’t do a good job of blocking and tackling this past week, and that’s something we focused hard on this week, doing our assignments and cleaning things up in that nature.”
The Commodores are in a very similar situation to West Point, coming in with identical records overall, in district and in non-district play.
Their offense has been a potent one, scoring 40 or more points in three of their four wins this season, but for as good as the offense has been, their defense has struggled.
Lafayette averages 28.3 points per game offensively while allowing 28 points per game defensively. In losses, that average jumps to 37 points per game, but in wins, that average sits at 21.3 points per game.
The same can be said offensively as the Commodores have scored 40 points per game in wins, but just 12.7 points per game in losses.
“They compete every game, they play hard every game,” Chambless said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge for us. … We have to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”
West Point has dominated this matchup all-time, leading 9-3 heading into Friday’s game, and riding an eight-game winning streak against the Commodores.
Last season saw the Green Wave score a program-high 59 points against Lafayette in a 24-point win, and for an offense that’s scored 28.7 points per game this season, a big offensive night will be the key to a 2-1 record in district.
“There’s that eagerness to get back onto the field to prove ourselves,” Chambless said.
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