STARKVILLE — Starkville High School football coach Jamie Mitchell asked his players Friday night if they knew the last time the program was 8-2.
No one could say for sure.
Mitchell had to call one of his assistants for the answer — 2003. Eight years ago, the only running the senior Yellow Jackets were doing was on an elementary playground.
Reading the faces around him, Mitchell told his players to think about that fact and savor it because he didn’t believe it had sunk in.
But Starkville showed with a 35-21 victory against Callaway in a Class 5A, Region 2 game that times have certainly changed.
All week, Mitchell warned that Callaway (3-7, 1-5 region) was a much better football team than its record. However, from the start, it looked like Starkville just had another easy matchup with an unfamiliar team in its new division.
The Yellow Jackets (8-2, 6-0) were hot off the bat, pushing the Chargers back on their first possession and forcing a punt. After a big return by junior Preston Baker, quarterback Gabe Myles hit his Devin Mitchell for a 19-yard score 1 minute, 44 seconds into in the game.
The first quarter fireworks weren’t done. After trading possessions, Starkville took over at its 20-yard line after a missed field goal. A holding penalty pushed the Yellow Jackets back to their 10 before Myles connected with Mitchell again for a short pass that turned into a 90-yard touchdown after Mitchell leapt over one would-be tackler and stiff-armed another into the ground to help push the lead to 14-0.
Callaway proved Mitchell’s point by returning the favor on the next play on a 60-yard run by Dylan Jones Jr. A personal foul against Starkville tacked on at the end put Callaway at the 8, where Jabari Woodcox scored on an 8-yard run with 1:08 remaining in the quarter.
After that one misfire, Starkville’s defense tightened and kept Callaway in long yardage situations for the rest of the half.
On offense, Starkville kept clicking thanks to a 25-yard pass play from Myles to Mitchell down to the 7. The play set up a tricky run by junior tight end Stanley Higgins for a touchdown with 1:19 left in the half.
Leading 21-7, Starkville began the third quarter with a long drive that consumed nearly six minutes. Myles and Mitchell hooked up again for a 20-yard play on third down, and Myles scrambled for another 20 yards to keep the drive alive. Mitchell capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run with 6:13 remaining in the quarter to push the margin to 28-7.
Callaway’s T.J. Washington punched the ball into the end zone on fourth-and-goal with two minutes left in the third quarter.
On Starkville’s next possession, a tipped pass thrown by senior Michael Newman put the ball back in Washington’s hands.
With 9:25 remaining, Washington scored his second 1-yard touchdown to pull the Chargers to 28-21.
That was as close as Callaway got.
Starkville put together a long drive that not only ate up the clock, but it also extended its lead to 14 points after Baker took a pitch for a score with 5:13 on the clock.
The defense shut the door on the Chargers to close the game, but Mitchell had nothing but compliments after it was over.
“I told my coaches after watching the film Sunday that’s the second best team in this division,” he said. “I don’t care what the record says. We got challenged tonight defensively, more than we’ve been in a while. They challenged us to the fullest. We needed that, and it sets up a division championship game next week.”
Mitchell said he will look to his seniors to help get the team ready for its showdown at Neshoba Central week. The game likely will determine the region championship.
“We’d love nothing more for those guys to take charge,” he said. “With their leadership, we’re making sure to turn it over to them. It’s their season. It’s their time to go with it, and we’ll go as far as they can carry us.”
Senior defensive back Stanley Childs said being a leader with this team is easy because everyone has bought in to the program, but he had difficulty finding the right words to describe how it felt.
“This is a really big deal,” he said. “We’ve been down and out a lot of years, but we’re making a big comeback. This is more than a family. This is a lifetime achievement.”
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