By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
Each time the New Hope defense converged on Center Hill quarterback Danterius Ellington, the elusive senior found a way to escape the pocket, usually for a big run or to buy time for a pass completion.
There wasn’t anything difficult about the game plan, New Hope coach Kris Pickle said. It all came down to players making plays.
Ellington made the majority of them.
The 6-footer threw three touchdown passes — all to tight end Jonathan Weeks — and ran for two more in the Mustangs’ 35-21 win over the Trojans Friday night in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Regon 1 play.
“They don’t do a whole lot of stuff,” Pickle said. “They get in four wides and trips, and they just let the quarterback make plays. When you got a guy like that, it’s hard to defend.”
Ellington went 15 of 20 for 179 passing yards and didn’t commit a turnover. He also ran the ball 20 times for 179 yards. Despite five tackles for a loss against Ellington, New Hope defenders were left to rue close to a dozen missed opportunities to get to Ellington in the backfield. Ellington accounted for all but 29 of Center Hill’s 387 yards of offense.
“It was very frustrating,” said New Hope junior defensive back Maurice Sharp. “It’s hard to fight through, especially at the end with the clock winding down.”
Despite Ellington’s dominance, the Trojans (1-5, 0-2 region) were within striking distance for much of the game, especially the first half, when they were matched a pair of touchdowns by Ellington with a stout ground game by CJ Clay, who carried the ball seven times and scored from 5 yards out on New Hope’s first drive of the game. And on fourth-and-goal, Thomas Stevens faked a zone-read and connected to his backside tight end, TJ Stephens for a 3-yard score to tie the game at 14.
New Hope’s defense came up with a fourth-down stop at its own 18, but the Trojans’ offense gifted the ball right back when, following a New Hope timeout and facing third-and-8 at its own 21, Stevens was picked off by, of all people, Ellington, who splits time at safety. Center Hill needed just three plays before Ellington found the end zone again, his third to Weeks in the first half, to take a 21-14 lead into the break.
“Every week, we push ourselves as hard as we can,” said Parker Lane, New Hope linebacker. “Tonight, we weren’t mentally there. This isn’t how we usually play football. But give the quarterback credit, he had a really good game.
“It was pretty much the same thing, the same plays. The quarterback can make something out of nothing.”
The game’s greatest swing of momentum came on the opening drive of the second half, when New Hope took advantage of a short field and marched inside the Center Hill 10. But a holding penalty stymied the drive, which flamed out on an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal from the 4.
Center Hill (4-2, 0-2) marched 94 yards and extended its lead to 28-14.
“There’s no magical answer to why we’re losing close games,” Pickle said. “I say it every week. We jump offsides down there on the 4-yard line and it backs us up outside the 10, and we have to overcome that. We can’t put ourselves in a position where we’re second-and-goal from the 11 or 12, we need to be on the 3 or 4 like we’re supposed to be. I don’t know if it’s inexperience. I put it on me. But we have to keep working to get better in the red zone.”
New Hope converted its second fourth-and-goal opportunity with five minutes to go in the game when Stevens found Andre Erby in the right corner of the end zone, a score that cut the Center Hill lead to 28-21.
But Ellington converted a pair of third downs and scored on a 13-yard scoring run to clinch the win.
“We were mixing coverages, going man, cover-2, our zone look some,” Pickle said. “We were still staying with our three-man front, doing the things we’ve always done. But [Ellington] is a good player. He’s probably one of the top quarterbacks in the state, and he’s gonna go to the All-Star game in December. He made some special plays tonight.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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