STARKVILLE – Noxubee County High School simply lined up as the more
physical football team in Starkville High School Friday night.
In their 29-8 victory over Class 5A state participant favorite
Starkville, Noxubee County simply lined up and dominated the line of
scrimmage with their big bodies.
“This team, with our 23 seniors, have dedicated themselves this
offseason to get stronger and bigger,” Noxubee County coach Tyrone
Shorter said. “We had to dominate the line of scrimmage and from the
first play of the game, my guys did exactly that.”
Shorter had his Tigers team highly motivated after creating a attitude
of disrespect for the preseason rankings that saw Starkville (0-1)
ranked higher than his Noxubee County program.
“We thought we should be higher than we were and high up in the
overall Top 10 but I told my team that this field is what we can
control,” Shorter said. “We can’t control where we’re ranked from week
to week.”
The Tigers defensive effort contained what was expected to be an
explosive Starkville offense to just 83 total yards of offense and
just one completed passes throughout the entire affair.
The Tigers defensive line play, which was led by 255-pound senior
defensive end Dylan Bradley, had Starkville senior quarterback Gabe
Myles on the run from nearly every snap from center.
Myles, who verbally committed to Mississippi State University this
summer, was held to a single yard of total offense in the first half
and was forced into eight incomplete passes in the first 24 minutes of
action. The SHS senior quarterback would finish the evening with a
frustrating six total yards.
“After the game, Gabe told me that I gave him some problems back
there,” Bradley said. “He wasn’t able to stand there in the pocket and
do anything with comfort.”
Yellow Jackets third-year coach Jamie Mitchell did come away from his
fourth straight loss to Noxubee County (1-0) being able to identify
the inability of his offensive line to move the chains.
“I don’t know if we’ll play a better defense than that all season and
I’m certainly hoping that is the case,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know
what to tell you, they simply lined up and whipped our you-know-what
as good as you can whip it.”
Noxubee County simply didn’t have this issue on offense as the power
game was incredibly effective with the run game of senior tailback
Darrell Robinson. The 5-foot-10, 191-pound tailback finished the
evening with 194 yards on just 19 carries and two touchdowns mostly on
off-tackle sweeps and toss plays.
Noxubee County, who is considered a favorite to challenge for the
Class 4A state championship, were able to rely on the leadership of
Robinson and senior quarterback DeAngelo Ballard in the first road
contest of the 2012 season. The duo led a Tigers offense to 320 total
yards and 267 on the ground. In a 33-20 season-opening victory over
Starkville last season, Noxubee Country steamrolled to 330 yards on
the ground.
“If we can run the football like we did tonight, we can handle anybody
in the state of Mississippi,” Shorter said. “I really don’t want to be
too cocky about this group after the start we got out to last year but
this group thinks it can be the first ever Noxubee team to go 16-0 in
a season.”
Noxubee County will open its home schedule with a Saturday game against Craigmont
High School out of Memphis, Tenn., next week. Starkville will be on
the road as they travel to Madison Central High School for a 7:06 p.m.
contest Friday to be broadcast on CSS.
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