CALEDONIA — A one-sided score told only part of the story Friday night in the Mississippi High School Athletics Association Class 4A, Region 4 football game between Caledonia High School and Kosciusko High.
Both teams came in vying for playoff positioning. After Kosciusko earned a 34-6 victory, Caledonia coach Andy Crotwell knows how close his team is, but he also knows his team has a lot of ground to make up with two games remaining in the regular season.
“I thought throughout the duration of the game there were a lot of little things that prevented us from finishing drives,” Crotwell said. “That seems to be a common theme at times. We seem to be just a little bit away on a lot of things.”
Caledonia (2-7, 0-3 region) came into the game hoping to capitalize on the energy from a large Homecoming crowd. After Kosciusko’s Ryan Rigby scored on a 71-yard on the Whippets’ first play, the Confederates settled in and stayed in the game in the first half. Caledonia’s defense kept Kosciusko off the scoreboard for the remainder of the first quarter as its offense found its rhythm. Early in the second quarter, Caledonia marched to Kosciusko’s 8-yard line, but negative plays halted its momentum and forced it to attempt a field goal that was blocked by Daquan Tolar. Kosciusko scored again later in the quarter to extend its lead to 14-0.
“We needed to execute down here in the red zone and we didn’t,” Crotwell said. “We had to settle for a couple of field goal attempts, but we needed to turn those into touchdowns.”
With time winding down in the first half, Caledonia again moved into scoring position. Quarterback Ben Marchbanks found his stride on the ground and through the air and appeared poised to help the Confederates put points on the scoreboard. On first-and-10 from the Kosciusko 22-yard line, Marchbanks found a receiver in the back corner of the end zone for an apparent touchdown, but a penalty flag for holding near the line of scrimmage erased the score. Three plays later, Caledonia settled for another long field goal attempt that missed wide left.
Kosciusko scored on the opening drive of the third quarter to extend its lead to 21-0. Caledonia went three-and-out on its first drive before Kosciusko quarterback Tim Wade found Rigby for a 62-yard score that helped push the margin to 28-0.
“We’ve come light years from where we were in game one as far as experience and play,” Crotwell said. “We’re not there yet, but I think we’re closer than a lot of our guys realize.
“We’ve got two games to play and we feel like we’ve got an opportunity to win those games and get in the playoffs. Everybody has a fighting chance on a given Friday night in our region.”
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