Tyler Anderson isn’t ready to hang out his cleats.
The senior quarterback rushed for two touchdowns and threw for three more Friday night to lead the fourth-seeded Heritage Academy football team to a 44-14 victory against fifth-seeded Manchester Academy in the second round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA playoffs at C.L. Mitchell Field.
“He’s great,” Heritage Academy senior wide receiver/cornerback Brandon Jones said. “He has always been great. He is one of my great friends, and we always knew he was going to be a great quarterback. After my two fumbles, Tyler walked up to me and said, ‘Forget it, we will get them again’ and made me keep my head up and to keep going. He is special to have on the team.”
When Anderson was asked about his performance, he gave all the credit to Heritage Academy coach Sean Harrison and the team.
“Just like always, coach gave us fantastic play calls,” Anderson said. “The coaches find holes in the defenses for us every week and we just try to execute them. I missed a few reads and wide-open receivers. They had some good schemes and I just missed them. Our line played great as always. They opened up a lot of holes and a lot of plays and just made it easy.”
The victory helped Heritage Academy improve to 10-2 and set a date against top-seeded Indianola Academy, which beat Columbia Academy 41-20, at 7 p.m. next week. Indianola Academy defeated Heritage Academy 35-13 on Oct. 14.
Building on a 77-47 victory against St. Aloysius last week, Heritage Academy gained 385 yards.
Jones said the offense didn’t do anything out of the ordinary and that high-scoring games are expected.
“We are just doing our normal thing,” Jones said. “We are running our normal fast-paced offense. We expect to score that much week in and week out. Tonight we really wanted to focus on defense, and we knew that would help the offense score if we got the defense clicking.”
Harrison was proud of the way his offense played and how it continues to fight through adversity.
“This senior group is fantastic,” Harrison said. “Then you throw in Dontae (Gray) and Eli (Acker). We had a lot of people step up tonight. We had probably our worst game of the season with turnovers, but then they went right back to scoring. That’s the kind of kids they are. They turn the page. We faced a heck of a defensive front, and it was tough to run the ball, but we got it going when we needed to.”
Harrison said the Patriots focused on defense leading up to the game in an effort not to have a repeat of last week.
Anderson did his part with an interception. He knows the Patriots need to play better on that side of the ball to keep their season alive. “We have to keep playing hard and get everyone flowing to the ball,” Anderson said. “Last week, we had a couple of guys walking around, and this week everyone was hustling and flowing to the ball great. Our game plan all week was to get our defense going. If we want to contend for state, we cannot allow teams to score 47 points.”
The Patriots lit up the scoreboard in the first half, as Anderson rushed for a touchdown and hit Jones for two long touchdown passes. The defense allowed one long pass for a touchdown, but it forced a safety in the second quarter. Toby Young added a touchdown to give the Patriots a 30-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, Anderson hit Acker for a touchdown and rushed for another one to put the game away.
Heritage Academy’s starters came off the field midway through the fourth quarter and watched as the second string stepped into a victory formation.
“I think they’re excited for the opportunity,” Harrison said. “I’m excited for the opportunity. I told them in the postgame huddle that it doesn’t matter what I scheme and what the other coaches scheme, they have to go out there and believe it and execute. They’re excited.”
Jones agreed and said the Patriots were going to soak in the another double-digit playoff victory before they turned their sights to a rematch against the top-seeded team in Class AAA.
“It is such a great feeling,” Jones said. “For this to be our last ever home game and to get a win like that in front of our fans is fantastic. It feels great. To see what we did last year to now, its great. To prepare for this upcoming week, we are going to watch a lot of film and see what we did wrong against them last time, and we are going to prepare, work hard and go down there and play our best.”
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