JACKSON — The Hazlehurst High School football team’s resume is impressive.
Hazlehurst (14-1) will defend its 2012 Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A title at 11 a.m. against Louisville (15-0) at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. It will be Hazlehurst’s third-consecutive season in the title game. Hazlehurst’s only loss is a 21-20 setback to Class 2A power Bassfield. It has beaten opponents by two touchdowns or more 11 times, including a 36-22 victory against Wilkinson County in the South State title game. The Indians have beaten teams by 20 points or more eight times. They have held opponents to 15 points or less nine times.
Despite all of that, Hazlehurst isn’t the consensus pick to win the title. Hazlehurst coach Randal Montgomery doesn’t mind.
“All the talk is about Louisville and that’s rightfully so,” said Montgomery, who is in his third season as head coach of the Indians. “Any time you have won as many state championships as they have, they have earned the right to be talked about. But we really don’t get into that type of thing anyway. We just really try to take care of Hazlehurst, and we have done a good job so far.”
Not only are the folks in 3A talking about Louisville being the team to beat, but coaches in other classifications also recognize the strength of the Wildcats.
“The biggest break we got all year was Louisville being moved from 4A to 3A,” Lafayette County coach Eric Robertson said Monday when he took the podium for the MHSAA Football Championships news conference at the Mississippi Hall of Fame in Jackson. That comment received a big laugh and a large number of nods of agreement from those in attendance.
Veteran Louisville coach M.C. Miller, who will try to lead Louisville to its eighth state football championship since the playoffs began in 1981, also understands what those comments will do for Hazlehurst.
“It will give them a little burn,” Miller said, noting the Indians might feel they have something to prove. “We are just going to have to get some of that determination back on our side. We’re not done yet.”
That’s something Louisville senior quarterback Wyatt Roberts understands.
“We are completely zoned in on Hazlehurst,” he said. “This is the biggest game of the year. Nobody is going to overlook the defending state champions.”
There has been some concern Louisville has won games so handily that the starters might not have the stamina to compete for four quarters in a big game. The Wildcats have debunked that theory during the playoffs. After resting the starters in a 69-0 opening-round victory against Ruleville Central, the starters have gone deep in games against Water Valley (56-27), Cleveland East Side (40-6), and the North State title game victory against Charleston (45-0).
“We get talked to about that a lot,” Louisville senior linebacker Jeremy Sangster said. “When you are playing a half or a quarter of football, a lot of people ask when we play a good team are we going to be in shape or prepared. We stepped up to that challenge. We played good teams in the playoffs and stepped up and kept on winning.”
Miller admits he had a few concerns.
“I was kind of worried about that,” Miller said. “We wondered how they would fair when they had to play a full game, but they are steadily rising to the occasion. Their stats are not as good as if they were playing the whole game, and it probably hurt the players a little bit there. But I really hope (resting them) helped them because they didn’t get hurt.”
Roberts, in his fourth season as the starter, was 179 of 319 passes for 2,827 yards. He has 36 touchdown passes and four interceptions.
Desmond Goss has 53 catches for 1,011 yards and 17 scores, while junior Dontae Jones has 41 catches for 727 yards and 10 touchdowns. Dalton Hudspeth has 37 catches for 472 yards, and T.J Hudson (25, 395) rounds out a strong and balanced group of receivers.
“I believe I have one of the best receiving corps in the state of Mississippi,” Roberts said. “Their ability to make plays in space or in coverage gets me out of a lot of binds and makes me look a lot better.”
Like any good quarterback, Roberts also credits his offensive line.
“It’s really a total team thing,” Roberts said.
While the Wildcats like to throw the ball around, they also can run it. Demarcus Brooks leads the team with 954 yards on 108 carries. He also has 12 touchdowns. Avonte Harris has rushed for 367 yards, while Roberts has 247 and seven touchdowns.
“We probably could have run Wyatt more during his career,” Miller said. “He’s a very good runner, but we just didn’t want to risk getting him hurt.”
Sangster leads a nasty defense with a team-high 146 tackles. Twenty-seven of those tackles were made behind the line of scrimmage. Anthony Gund is second on the team with 73 stops.
“Our biggest challenge is going to be defending them,” Montgomery said. “We don’t see a lot of that (passing offenses) on our side of the state. That presents a great challenge.”
The Indians lost four offensive lineman, a three-year starter at quarterback, and two running backs off last year’s team, but they found a way to get back to Jackson.
“We thought if we could put something together on the offensive line we could make a run at it,” he said. “About halfway through the season when we got in there and went (toe-to-toe) with Bassfield, we thought we had a chance in 3A.”
D’Alex Reese is Hazlehurst’s leading rusher with 1,479 yards on 166 carries for 16 touchdowns. Quarterback Jarvis Warner has 1,073 yards on 109 attempts. He has thrown for 1,710 yards and 24 touchdowns.
Dycelious Reese may be the Indians’ most explosive player. He has 692 yards on 67 attempts and 24 catches for 457 yards.
Linebacker Johnkil Skipper leads the Indians with 91 tackles, while Javareus Tanner has 82.
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