WEST POINT – Behind what seemed like an endless line of West Point blockers, the Green Wave pounded the ball 49 times for 398 yards Friday night to cruise to a 48-15 victory over visiting Starkville, which left West Point battered and bruised after their first loss to the hosts since 2019.
In true Green Wave fashion, West Point dominated the ball on the ground, averaging 8.1 yards per carry during its 26:17 of possession time, which allowed them to run nine more plays (57) than the Jackets.
“That’s how we want to play football,” said West Point head coach Brett Morgan. “It allows us to control the ball on offense and play good defense. We have to play a little better on special teams. … But absolutely– that’s the brand and how we want to play.”
The Yellow Jackets opened the game with a 13-play 42-yard drive that ended with a Jacori Gallegos field goal from 32-yards in the first scoring blow of the game. But from that moment on it was all West Point.
Green Wave running back Michael Williams rumbled up the middle for a 3-yard score to give West Point a 7-3 lead it took to the second quarter where Kingston Branham pummeled his way in for scoring runs of 8 and 12 yards before Starkville stopped the bleeding. The Jackets utilized a personal foul penalty on West Point and a 37-yard kickoff return by A’braylen Jenkins to start its drive on the Green Wave’s 32-yard line, and quarterback Kingston Johnson fired a 17-yard scoring pass to Latrent Agnew to get some momentum back Starkville’s way– but Galleos’ PAT try sailed far right for the miss.
West Point’s response?
A 47-yard touchdown scramble by Branham on the team’s second play of the drive and a 5-yard touchdown throw from quarterback Colt Whitacre to Justin White to give the Green Wave a dominant 34-9 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Amahd Brown pulled West Point ahead 41-9 with an 11-yard scoring run, and Quinton Thompson provided the dagger when he broke free from swarming Yellow Jacket tacklers and scurried down the left sideline for a 46-yard touchdown.
Starkville struggled all game to find any rhythm with its offense and that carried over in the final frame. The Yellow Jackets final score came in the middle of the fourth quarter with backups in on both sides: backup quarterback Jacory Ruffin threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Tiwan Triplett to end the night.
Thompson led the Green Wave with 144 yards on 13 carries, and Branham added 122 yards on 13 totes for three scores.
West Point limited Starkville’s Kingston to 12-of-26 passing for 98 yards and their offense to just 183 yards – just one week after the team set a new school record. Starkville was held to 6-of-13 on third-down conversions and was 1-of-3 on fourth-down tries.
“Hats off to them,” said Starkville head coach John Carr. “You have to tip your hat to them. They ran the ball right at us and we couldn’t do anything about it. We have to execute better and play more physical.”
Morgan said he’s thrilled with the way his team’s defense was able to shut down Starkville.
“That’s a fine offense over there, and I just couldn’t be prouder of our defense, the effort that we played with and just hats off to our defense and how they played tonight,” Morgan said.
West Point is 2-0 through the first two weeks for the first time since 2018, and looks to stay undefeated when it plays at Noxubee County on Friday. Starkville (1-1) looks to bounce back on Friday when it plays at Meridian.
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