CALEDONIA — Andre Erby rushed for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass, and returned a kickoff for a score Friday night to lead the New Hope High School football team to a 49-10 victory against Caledonia.
The victory helped New Hope (3-1) extend its winning streak to 12 in the series dating back to Caledonia’s last victory against New Hope in 2004.
Erby scored on a 31-yard run, returned a kick 79 for a touchdown, and caught a 37-yard pass from quarterback Thomas Stevens, who was 16 of 21 for 173 yards and two touchdowns (no interceptions).
Tyran Reed had a 6-yard touchdown run, Jeremy Tate caught an 8-yard touchdown pass, Devonta White had a 30-yard interception return for a touchdown, and Tony Deloach had a 9-yard touchdown run.
Tae-Kion Reed had back-to-back sacks in the first half to help snuff out a Caledonia drive. Jay Shinn also had an interception. Kyree Fields blocked a punt. Kobe Matthews recovered a fumble.
Caleb Comer kicked a 35-yard field goal and Jamel Thomas scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Unruh, who was 12 of 26 for 123 yards (two interceptions).
New Hope will play host to Clarksdale next week in its Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) opener Friday.
Caledonia will play host to Tishomingo County in its final non-region matchup. It will play host to Houston the following Friday in its Class 4A, Region 4 opener.
Meridian 20, Starkville 10: At Meridian, Rodrigues Clark rushed for 162 yards and one touchdown Friday night, but it wasn’t enough as the No. 2 Yellow Jackets lost to the No. 10 Wildcats.
The loss snapped Starkville’s 17-game winning streak dating back to last season.
Trailing 14-10 early in the fourth quarter, Starkville (3-1) was driving to re-take the lead. But on first-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Starkville center Connor Reinike snapped the ball over quarterback Malik Brown. D’Angelo Anderson recovered the football for Meridian (4-1).
Meridian quarterback Eddie Brown hit Mack Martin for a 37-yard touchdown on the next drive to put the game out of reach.
“When you play good teams you can’t make mistakes,” Starkville coach Ricky Woods said. “This is a good team. I think we’re very similar. We just made some mistakes that shouldn’t have happened when they happened. We had our chances and just didn’t come through.”
Tied at 7 at halftime, Starkville took a 10-7 lead on a Wesley Albritton 27-yard field goal. But Meridian used an 11-yard touchdown from Jaquaris Dean late in the third quarter to take the lead for good.
“We could have practiced a lot better,” Starkville senior linebacker and Ole Miss commit Willie Gay said. “Coach preached to us all week, ‘If you keep practicing like this, somebody’s going to beat you,’ and it just so happened.
“I know Monday was kind of slow coming back out there, real slow. It was going back to tempo and having to practice.”
Brown sprained his knee in the fourth quarter. Woods said he expects him to play next week.
Starkville took a 7-0 lead on a 5-yard Clark touchdown with 33 seconds left in the first half.
A 48-yard kickoff return by Eli Stringfellow gave Meridian the ball at the Starkville 27 with 22 seconds remaining. After a first down, the Wildcats faced a third-and-10 at the 11. Quarterback Tevarrius Adams rolled to his left, saw no one open, and dove for the pylon for an 11-yard touchdown to tie the game with four seconds left in the opening half.
Starkville will play host to Callaway at 7 p.m. Friday in its Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A, Region 2 opener.
West Point 47, Noxubee County 6: At West Point, the Green Wave racked up a season-best 282 rushing yards while rolling over the Tigers.
The highly-anticipated showdown between Top 10 powers was over quickly.
Noxubee County (2-3) scored on the game’s first possession when Maliek Stallings capped a 79-yard drive with a 1-yard run.
West Point (3-1) then had its own 79-yard drive capped by a Marcus Murphy 4-yard run.
Noxubee County was then held on downs at the West Point 6-yard line. The Green Wave took advantage with Murphy going 94 yards for the second of his three touchdowns.
Three straight turnovers followed. West Point scored on each and later led 41-6 at halftime.
Murphy finished with 15 rushes for 167 yards. Clayton Knight was 7-of-9 passing for 173 with touchdowns passes to Demarrio Edwards and Jason Brownlee. Andre Lane also had a rushing touchdown for West Point, while Jose Garcia kicked two second-half field goals.
Stallings was 17-of-33 passing for 212 yards for Noxubee County. Kyziah Pruitt had eight catches for 100 yards.
For more on this game and the rest of Friday night’s prep football action, see Sunday’s print edition of The Dispatch. You also can access our coverage Sunday morning at www.cdispatch.com.
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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