MACON — Tyrone Shorter is raring to go.
If the Noxubee County High School football coach had his way, he would have loved to have gotten a jump on the rest of the Mississippi High School Activities Association teams and played his first playoff game Thursday night. But Shorter and the rest of the state will have to wait until 7 tonight to get the party started. For defending Class 4A state champion Noxubee County, the playoff push begins with a home game against Indianola gentry, the No. 4 seed from Region 3.
“It feels good to be in the position we’re in,” Shorter said. “Our goal was to finish No. 1 in our division to get the first-round game here. Our kids are focused. We feel good. We got back healthy at the right time.”
Shorter isn’t allowing his team to focus on the fact that gentry comes in as the No. 4 seed. He has stressed to his players that Noxubee County beat a No. 4 seed, Greene County, in Jackson last year to win the program’s second state championship. He hopes tonight’s game can be his young team’s first step back to the title stage.
Noxubee County likely will try to take the first step with sophomore Timorrius Conner at quarterback. Shorter said Conner, who was returning from an injury, played well in a 34-0 victory against Houston in its regular-season finale. The start was Conner’s first since early in the season. He played in place of senior Jessie Bryant, who had taken his place and played well until he was injured against Caledonia in the next-to-last regular-season game. Shorter said Bryant will dress out tonight, but that he hopes he won’t have to use him to give him another week to get completely healthy.
Noxubee County also should be back at full strength after Shorter held six starters out of the Houston game due to disciplinary reasons. He feels the suspensions and the fact that playoffs are here have helped focus the team even more.
“I call it tough love,” Shorter said. “I am a big discipline person. We are going to be tough on them. We are going to show them love, too.”
Gentry comes in at 4-7 and 1-3 in Region 3 action. It lost to Yazoo County 34-6 last week to earn the No. 4 seed. Greenwood, Cleveland, and Yazoo County finished in the top three spots in Region 3.
Shorter has watched a young team mature through an arduous non-conference schedule that included games against Starkville, Columbus, West Point, Louisville, and Aberdeen. He said turnovers, including two more last week, continue to be a problem, but he feels the team’s depth at running back and its versatility at quarterback should help them put those mistakes behind them.
“It didn’t matter how bad things got at one point,” Shorter said. “This team kept working together and playing as one. I think we’re in a really good situation right now.”
The winner of the Gentry-Noxubee County game will play the winner of the Pontotoc-Ripley game next Friday.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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