MACON — Noxubee County High School senior defensive end Jeffery Simmons has made his name as one of the state’s best defensive players.
On Friday night, the Columbus High defense was on the receiving end of the 6-foot-4, 270-pound Simmons’ offensive punch.
Simmons scored two second-half touchdowns to help Noxubee County pull away to a 25-8 victory against Columbus. Six turnovers doomed the Falcons (1-1).
“We came here and the exact thing we couldn’t do,” Columbus coach Randal Montgomery said. “We could not come here and turn the ball over six times. We did that last year (in a 46-7 loss). We did that again. We are a lot better now. We have a competitive team. A year ago, this game would have gotten way out of hand.
“However, we can’t turn the ball over.”
Noxubee County won its 13th-straight game, but the result was in doubt for more than a half.
Columbus was driving to end a then-scoreless first half. Quarterback C.J. Gholar was stripped at midfield. The ball bounced for about 30 yards before Kalmorris Robinson returned the fumble 24 yards for a 6-0 halftime lead.
In the second half, Simmons scored on a 1-yard run and caught 33-yard touchdown from Timorrius Conner. Conner also hit Ladaveon Smith for a 33-yard touchdown.
Columbus fumbled on the Noxubee County 9-yard line in the first half and at the Noxubee County 1 in the second half. A 73-yard fumble return by Hezekiah Manigo set up Columbus’ touchdown — a 4-yard run by Gholar.
“We really played a great game on defense until the second half,” Manigo said. “They beat us on couple of deep plays. It doesn’t matter how many turnovers we have as a team, our job is to keep battling and to keep the other team out of the end zone.”
n Starkville 20, Oxford 7: At Starkville, A.J. Brown hauled in a career-high 16 catches for 176 yards to help the Yellow Jackets (1-1) defeat the Chargers (1-1) and claim the “Little Egg Bowl” trophy for the second year in a row.
Starkville fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter, but battled back with touchdowns in the second, third, and fourth quarters.
Quarterback Montario Montgomery scored on a 5-yard run to tie the game at 7 with 11 minutes, 23 seconds left in the second quarter. Montgomery rushed for 89 yards and threw for 238.
Montgomery found Avery Brown for a 22-yard touchdown pass with 5:25 left in the third quarter to give the Yellow Jackets a 14-7 lead.
Avery Brown (110 yards rushing) scored on a 5-yard run with 10:29 remaining in the final quarter.
Oxford had 243 yards, while Starkville had 437.
n West Point 46, Louisville 7: At Louisville, Marcus Murphy rushed for 153 yards and three touchdowns on 11 carries, and connected with Dmarrio Edwards on a 79-yard scoring strike to lead the Green Wave past the Wildcats on Friday night.
West Point (1-0) rushed for 412 yards and held Louisville to only 1 rushing yard in the first half.
West Point took a 14-7 first-quarter lead thank to the touchdown pass to Edwards and a 3-yard run by Murphy. Murphy scored on runs of 57 and 20 yards in the second quarter, and Trey Brownlee returned an interception 38 yards for a score to give the Green Wave a 32-7 halftime lead.
The Green Wave’s only points in the second half came in the third quarter on Andre Lane’s 10-yard run and Trevino Harris’ 1-yard run.
Louisville’s touchdown came on a 38-yard halfback pass from Keon Coleman to Devon Lee.
West Point will play Starkville next week, while Louisville (1-1) will visit Kemper County.
n Caledonia 31, Mooreville 7: At Caledonia, Spencer Unruh rushed for two touchdowns and threw for two more to help the Confederates (2-0) beat the Troopers (0-2).
Unruh, a junior quarterback, rushed for scores of 7 and 18 yards. He connected with Will Burton on a 39-yard scoring strike and Zion Ford on a 53-yard touchdown.
Caleb Comer added a 41-yard field goal to complete the scoring for Caledonia, which had seven sacks.
For more on these games and a wrapup of all of the local action, check out Sunday’s print edition of The Dispatch. You also can go to www.cdispatch.com Sunday morning to check out our coverage online.
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