MACON — For the Noxubee County High School football team, there is no such thing as time off.
“Some of our defensive players wanted to watch film (Saturday) morning,” Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter said. “That is the kind of dedication we have on this team. Several of the players met the coaches. They watched film and lifted weights. That is when you know you have a special group.”
Noxubee County improved to 6-0 with its final non-region victory of the season — a 45-0 defeat of Kemper County on Friday night. The Tigers posted their third straight shutout and haven’t allowed a point in 12 quarters.
“I was worried about a letdown,” Shorter said. “You are coming off such a huge win against West Point (a 6-0 win). It was very emotional and very draining. Practice Monday is not exactly what I wanted to see. But I give the kids a lot of credit, they came back and played really hard again Friday night.”
Shorter said linebackers Javancy Jones and Anthony Skinner paced a defensive unit, which forced four turnovers.
“The whole unit played well,” Shorter said. “We have a lot of speed on that side of the ball, so the challenge is to get into the backfield. We did that Friday night.”
Senior Darrell Robinson hustled toward the 1,000-yard mark with 180 more rushing yards. Robinson has now topped the 800-yard mark with 15 touchdowns, including three more scores Friday. Robinson scored on runs of 5, 60, and 60 yards.
DeAngelo Ballard scored on a 35-yard run and hit Jessie Bryant for a 20-yard touchdown pass. Jarvis Taylor added a 5-yard run, while Eric Hunt kicked a 30-yard field goal.
“We ran the ball extremely well,” Shorter said. “The best thing this game did was it gave us a chance to work on our passing game. Even though we played well offensively, we need to be a more complete team on that side of the ball as we enter region play.”
Class 4A, Region 4 play begins Friday night when Noxubee County plays host to Kosciusko.
n Ackerman 44, Caledonia 24: At Ackerman, The Class 4A Confederates built a 14-0 lead but couldn’t hold it in a non-region defeat at Class 2A Indians.
Randy Randle returned a kickoff 80 yards to get Caledonia (4-2) started. Defensive back Jonathan Pagaduan followed with a 50-yard interception return for Caledonia’s next score.
Behind the leadership of senior quarterback Dakota Bradshaw, the Indians (4-2) finally found a rhythm. Ackerman scored on three straight possessions, including a quick-strike 79-yard touchdown run by junior T.C. Hatchett.
Hatchett rushed six times for 126 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Dakota Bradshaw was 11 of 17 for 202 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Bradshaw found Quinton Lane for a 45-yard touchdown pass and Lenny Taylor for a 44-yard touchdown pass.
Ackerman scored on three of four possessions after the early struggles to take a 30-14 halftime lead.
Bradshaw’s second scoring pass pushed the lead to 36-14 in the third quarter. Caledonia answered with a 25-yard field goal by Josh Kugel, who also kicked all three of his squad’s PATs.
A 5-yard touchdown run by Ben Marchbanks was Caledonia’s final touchdown. A 13-yard run by Ackerman’s Alex Foust capped the scoring.
After starting the season with four straight wins, Caledonia will look to snap a two-game losing streak Friday night when it plays hosts to Leake Central in the Class 4A, Region 4 opener for both teams.
n Immanuel Christian 42, Park Place Christian 0: At Pearl, The Rams (2-4) built a 30-0 halftime lead and cruised to their non-region victory at Smith-Wills Stadium
Joshua Dantzler scored on a 23-yard run and Cunningham added a 5-yard scoring run in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Justin Tate scored on a 5-yard run. Cunningham threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Dantzler to cap the first half.
Ryan Forrester scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter. B.J. Shirley scored on a fumble recovery on a Wilson Harmond run to account for the scoring.
Tate had 11 carries for 45 yards, Forrester had five carries for 53 yards, Dantzler had four carries for 35 yards, Cunningham had three carries for 10 yards, and Peyton Perralto had three carries for 28 yards.
Cunningham was 4 of 5 for 78 yards. Tate had one catch for 28 yards, and Dantzler had one catch for 44 yards.
Luke Hudson, Omar Aquil, and Shirley each had six tackles. Bruce Baudoin, B. Doty, and Harmond each had five. Cunningham and Dantzler each had four. Baudoin had a fumble recovery, and Dantzler and Dawson Shaw had interceptions.
n Evangel Christian 35, Victory Christian 6: At Columbus, The Eagles stepped out of the Christian Football Association and slipped to 1-4 with their home loss.
On offense, Roy Boden had three catches for 57 yards and Anthony Sharp had two catches for 15 yards. Cody Bolton had nine carries for 76. Sharp rushed for 41 yards on 12 carries. Bryer Bolton was 5 of 9 with an interception, and Sean Meadows was 2 of 3
Sean Meadows led Victory Christian with 11 tackles. Bo McCrary added nine.
n Hebron Christian 30, Central Academy 0: At Pheba, Youth was served for the Eagles on Friday night.
“We did not play any of our seniors in this game,” Hebron Christian coach David Foster said. “Macon Central has a real young team, so we thought this would be a good chance to look at next year’s team. We have a few things to work out, but I thought overall we played really well.”
While the Eagles (6-0) have been solid all season defensively, this was their first shutout.
“I thought defensively we were really great,” Foster said. “You could tell some of the younger guys have been learning from the seniors. They saw an opportunity in this game and made the most of it.”
Freshman Channing Tapley paced the Eagles with 14 tackles, while fellow freshman Jesse Moore had 13 tackles and a sack. Sophomore Collin Moore had eight tackles and an interception. Junior Troy Arnold had seven tackles, a sack and two fumble recoveries. Freshman Nolan Whitt added six tackles.
“We had juniors throughout the line,” Foster said. “We played three sophomores and several ninth graders. This was a good overall learning experience for them.”
Tapley quarterbacked the Eagles. He rushed nine times for 50 yards, with two two-point conversions. Collin Moore paced the team with 12 rushes for 99 yards, including touchdown runs of 30 and 25 yards. Andrew Myatt ran 10 times for 40 yards, with a 24-yard touchdown run and a pair of 2-point conversions.
Myatt also aided his offensive numbers with a 24-yard interception return for score.
“We are 6-0 and we need to keep this thing rolling,” Foster said. “The effort and hard work of the kids has really been great this year. We still have some challenges ahead but I am proud of the season.
“Kemper Academy is next. They are a bunch of hard-hitting country boys like us. That will be a big challenge.”
The Kemper Academy-Hebron Christian matchup Friday night will complete a three-game homestand for the Eagles.
The Vikings (0-6) continued to add to their injury list. Quarterback Lee Sciple left the game in the first quarter with a fractured clavicle. Central Academy already was playing without Steven Lane and T J Coleman, who are already out with season-ending injuries.
Junior running back Russ Taylor led the Vikings with 35 yards rushing. Taylor and Colby Robbins each had nine tackles. Freshman William Dawkins had five tackles and a forced fumble. Darrell Tate had four solo tackles, while Jacob Craig and Jack Vandevender added four apiece.
Central Academy will play next week at Russell Christian.
n Canton Academy 48, Oak Hill Academy 15: At West Point, The Raiders couldn’t overcome seven turnovers in a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class 2A, District 2 loss at home.
“Canton is the best team we have faced all year,” Oak Hill coach Daniel Merchant said, “so we were playing a great team and then did not help ourselves any at all. Seven turnovers will get you beat against just about everybody on the schedule.”
The Raiders (3-3, 1-2) had seven lost fumbles, including three on quarterback-center exchanges.
“We were down 14-7 with 2:38 to go in the first half and had played well,” Merchant said. “Then the wheels came completely off. We go down 35-7 at halftime. Then we actually come back and get it to 35-15 and have another drive going. Then we shot ourselves in the foot again. It was good effort and bad execution.”
Oak Hill Academy rushed for 202 yards. Connor Baird was 4 of 10 for 35 yards. Baird hit Jacob Dickens on a 13-yard touchdown pass. Samuel Harrell ran 11 times for 89 yards, with three kickoff returns for more than 90 yards. Drake Riley ran seven times for 74 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown run.
“Samuel Harrell really had a great game for us,” Merchant said. “The kick returns gave us some really good field position. We made some mistakes and didn’t take advantage of all of those opportunities. Still, he was very solid for us and his great night in the return game gave us some chances.”
Jeb Stevens paced Oak Hill with eight tackles. Cooper Orman added five. A fumble recovery by Drew Riley was the only takeaway for Oak Hill Academy.
“We had some struggles but we have to put that behind us because it is another big district game Friday night,” Merchant said. “Leake is undefeated in the league, even though they have only one played game, o we got to go on the road and play well.”
Oak Hill Academy and Leake Academy will play Friday night in Madden.
n Walnut 6, Hamilton 0: At Hamilton, the Lions’ offensive struggles continued as they were shut out in their final non-region game.
Walnut (2-4) scored the game’s only points in the second quarter on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Dillon Barnes to Shawn Thornton.
Hamilton (2-4) was held below 100 yard of total offense for a second straight week. It hasn’t scored in eight quarters.
Hamilton will play the first of five straight Class 2A, Region 2 games Friday night at Williams-Sullivan.
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