MACON — The Noxubee County High School football team is going to have to wait until 2011 to make another run at the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A state championship.
The Lafayette County Commodores shut out Noxubee County 20-0 on Friday night in the MHSAA North State title game to end the Tigers” season at 13-2.
“The defense played its heart out,” Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter said. “We just couldn”t get it going offensively. Our backs were against the wall all night. We held them to two field goals in the first half. I think the turning point of the game was in the second half when we gave up the big play. We were in position to make it, but the guy just came down with the ball. That”s what killed us. But then that was on third down also. We couldn”t bounce back from that.”
After receiving the opening kickoff, Noxubee County immediately took to the air with a quick hitch from sophomore quarterback Deangelo Ballard to junior wide receiver Terrence Barron. But Lafayette County stopped the play for a loss and eventually forced the Tigers to punt.
On the Commodores” first play from scrimmage, the Tigers brought the home crowd to its feet as senior defensive back Brandon Sanders made an interception at the Tigers” 46-yard line. But Lafayette County put up a wall at midfield and stopped Noxubee County from capitalizing.
The top teams from the North, both known for devastating defenses, traded field position looking for some kind of edge. Lafayette County fans thought they had found it as their defense forced a fumble on Noxubee County”s 15. However, Tigers fans breathed a sigh of relief as the home team forced a fumble on the next play.
Lafayette County (15-0) started winning that battle for field position, as short punts by Noxubee County pinned its defense closer and closer to its end zone. A horse collar penalty on a third-down stop put the Commodores just outside the red zone, but Noxubee County forced Lafayette County to settle for a field goal moments into the second quarter.
Later in the half, the Tiger pulled the same trick after a punt gave the Commodores another short field. Noxubee County”s defense bent, but didn”t break, and Lafayette County took a 6-0 halftime lead.
Although the Commodores received the kick to start the second half, spectators must have wondered if someone had hit the rewind button. Moments into the third quarter, Noxubee County junior Ladarrell Hunt intercepted a pass at his 44 — almost the same spot as the turnover that ended Lafayette County”s first possession. However, Noxubee County was again unable to capitalize and was forced to punt.
While Noxubee County held Demarkus Dennis, Lafayette County”s leading rusher with more than 2,000 yards, the junior finally broke off a 16-yard run that put the Commodores near midfield. The Tigers responded after dragging down quarterback Jeremy Liggins for a loss to set up a long third down on the Commodores” 44.
Lafayette County took advantage of Noxubee County”s eagerness to make a play and dialed up a hitch-and-go route down the sideline. Liggins froze the cornerback with a pump fake and dropped the ball into the hands of wide receiver Ontario Phillips, who streaked down the sidelines for a 56-yard score that deflated the Tigers and silenced the crowd.
Leading 13-0 entering the fourth quarter, Liggins took command and showed why he averages more than 80 yards per game rushing and 128 yards passing — and why he invites comparisons to another large quarterback who is running roughshod over college football. Lafayette County ran the option for the rest of the game, with Liggins grinding out yards and wearing down the Tigers as the minutes floated away.
Fullback Jamel Dennis” 3-yard score with nine minutes left closed the scoring.
Lafayette County coach Anthony Hart complimented the Tigers and said he wants his team to follow in Noxubee County”s footsteps.
“If anybody is better on defense than Noxubee, I don”t want to play them,” he said. “They”re good. They have a good program with a lot of tradition. We want to be where they”ve been. We want to win a state championship, and our goal is to be like them. I felt like these are the two teams that should have played. I didn”t want to play them, but I”m glad we got the opportunity. Playing a team like this, you get hit in the mouth some. We didn”t get nothing cheap. That pass was big, but everything else was in the mouth, grinding it down.”
Shorter said the loss of junior quarterback Jared Johnson, who was injured in a car accident earlier in the week, took many options off the table.
“It was big tonight not to have Jared because I thought we could have passed the ball,” he said. “We weren”t comfortable in our passing game tonight. We thought we could run the ball and we didn”t, so not having Jared hurt us with Deangelo struggling. We really struggled because (Jared) came in last week and gave us a spark. Our defense was in position to make plays, but just on the field all night, and it wore us out.”
Shorter said lessons learned this season will make his young team stronger and give it new goals.
“It was a good game to learn from,” he said. “All the breaks, all the stuff that went down this year, the injuries, we had a lot going on and they still had enough fight in them to get to this game. I”m very proud of them. We”re a close family. We have 13 seniors who will be going on, but we”ll have the rest of the kids back next year. We feel good about it. We”ll go back to work and try to get back to this game next year.”
Lafayette County will take on North Pike at 3 p.m. Saturday at Mississippi Memorial Stadium in Jackson.
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