With quarterbacks leaving the field due to injury and only three points scored through three quarters, you had the feeling special teams play was going to play a decisive role in the Oak Hill Academy-heritage Academy football game Friday night at C.L. Mitchell Field.
Michael Ledbetter was only too happy to oblige — even if he had to improvise to make something happen.
Afterward, the Heritage Academy senior running back showed he was equally adept at thinking on his feet as he was as making something happen with them.
Ledbetter’s fumbled punt return turned into a game-changing touchdown thanks to a little help from his feet that propelled Heritage Academy to a 10-0 victory in the annual rivalry game between the Mississippi Association of Independent School rivals.
“Two out of three times no,” said Ledbetter, when asked if he had kicked the football purposely.
Rule 9, Section 7 (Illegal Kicking and Batting), Article 1 in the National Federation of State High School Associations football rule book states that “no player should intentionally kick the ball.” It states that the infraction is a 15-yard penalty from the spot of the foul.
The play unfolded so quickly that the officials might not have seen the football hit Ledbetter’s feet or they might have observed he made unintentional contact with the football as he hustled forward in an attempt to recover it. That would be understandable because Ledbetter reacted quickly after fumbling the football at around the Patriots’ 40-yard line. As the ball wobbled in front of him, Ledbetter, who also is a member of the school’s boys soccer team, contacted it and had enough time to collect it before he was swallowed up. Somehow he managed to weave in and out of traffic near the Heritage Academy sideline and score the game’s only touchdown with 9 minutes, 32 seconds remaining.
“I did not have time to look up and see if someone was coming after me,” Ledbetter said. “I just ran.
“Once you feel under control of your body and you can pick it up and go, you do so.”
Ledbetter also provided a 30-yard field goal in the second quarter in a game where it wasn’t safe to be a starting quarterback. Heritage Academy starter Tyler Anderson had to leave the game because he hurt his knee and dislocated a pinky finger. Backup quarterback Zach Oswalt replaced Anderson for the Patriots’ second series of the third quarter. Oswalt then left the game due to an undetermined injury.
On the other sideline, Oak Hill Academy starting quarterback Ken Dill survived only two series before leaving the game with a right ankle injury. After the game, Dill was seen using crutches and with a boot on his foot. Oak Hill Academy Chris Craven said Dill rolled his ankle badly, but he wasn’t sure if Dill had dislocated it.
Due to an injury to senior Kaleb Darnell, the Raiders’ backup quarterback, Craven had to go to sophomore John Carver Middleton. With the team’s third-string quarterback in the game, Craven said the Raiders weren’t able to use their whole playbook and attempted only six passes and gained 21 yards. They didn’t fare much better on the ground, rushing for 2 yards on 24 carries. An assortment of mishandled center-quarterback exchanges and high snaps added to the Raiders’ woes on an evening they didn’t get a first down.
“As people got injured, we had to keep going down the depth chart, which doesn’t go very far,” Craven said. “We had freshmen out there trying to do the job for us. My hat is off to them for being willing to step up and go out there and help out.”
“No one likes to lose, but, at the same time, there is a valuable lesson to be found in this. When the starting quarterback goes out and you have to go down t the third-string quarterback within the first two series in the first quarter, I saw our team grow up. I saw young men become more like a man and face adversity. That is what life is about anyway, and our program is more about building character and turning young men into men for life than it is the win and loss column, but we don’t want to lose.”
The victory was the ninth in a row in the series for the Patriots, who last lost to the Raiders on Oct. 27, 2006 (34-7 in West Point). It also marked the second-straight year (third time in four years) the Patriots have shut out the Raiders. Last season, Heritage Academy won 31-0 in West Point. In 2012, Oak Hill Academy had one first down (on a pass interference penalty in the fourth quarter) and -17 yards in a 42-0 loss.
Oak Hill Academy (2-1) already was down two players to 15 prior to the game. In addition to losing Dill, Oak Hill Academy running backs Collins Brown and Drew Riley also had to leave the game for brief stretches. After the game, Riley had a bag of ice wrapped around his side, while Brown was moving with a limp.
Craven felt like the productivity would have been there if the team’s “hands” hadn’t been tied by the injuries. As the game progressed, Heritage Academy capitalized on its greater depth and was able to use the speed of Ledbetter and sophomore running back Dontae Gray (16 carries, 134 yards) to get to the edges.
“They are fast,” Craven said of Ledbetter and Gray. “We found ourselves in a situation personnel wise where we couldn’t put the right people in the right places to contain the edge because we were short on skill people.”
Heritage Academy coach Barrett Donahoe praised Oak Hill Academy for its effort, especially at linebacker.
“I thought Oak Hill played extremely hard defensively,” Donahoe said. “Their linebackers are as athletic as they are made out to be, and they made the difference in the game. They were what kept us from driving the football. I was extremely impressed with their defense. I was extremely impressed our defense. I thought our defense played well. Coach (Bruce) Branch had a great plan, and there is no doubt about the fact that coach Branch has worked hard to get those guys better. Robert Brown and Thomas Cooper were lights out tonight. That made all of the difference tonight.”
Donahoe also acknowledged Ledbetter and Gray helped make a difference. When asked about Ledbetter’s fumble on the punt and his return for a touchdown, Donahoe said, “That was an athletic play.”
On a night where not a lot went right for either team, the touchdown was a welcome reward for heritage Academy, which was coming off a 47-7 loss to Lamar School last week. After a 48-0 victory against Columbus Christian in its opener, Donahoe said the Oak Hill Academy game was the first time this season he had an opportunity to have Ledbetter and Gray on the field at the same time with an ability to run the ball.
As dangerous as those two showed Friday that they can be, Donahoe knows it won’t matter if the Patriots don’t correct the mistakes they made against the Raiders.
“It’s important to quit making mistakes,” Donahoe said. “It doesn’t matter what else we do from this point. You can’t have three touchdowns called back on penalties. You can’t throw pick-sixes that get called back. You have to execute when we call fake punts. All of those things.”
Ledbetter said he hopes he gets more opportunities to make game-changing plays. Teamed with Gray, Ledbetter feels the Patriots have two players with speed who complement each other and can give the Patriots a potent one-two punch for four quarters. Fueled by a little fancy footwork, Ledbetter and Gray showed in the fourth quarter how well they can work together on an evening in which not very much went right at all.
“Coach came to us at halftime and said, ‘Listen, here is the second-half plan (to run the ball), here is what we are going to do, and we’re going to do it right,” Ledbetter said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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