MACON — Tyrone Shorter felt it coming all night.
Spurred on by an attacking defense that brought pressure for the final 24 minutes, Shorter was confident his offense was going to explode.
Two games earlier, the Noxubee County High School football team finally started to get some of its starting players back. Last week, Noxubee County worked on its timing, scored three touchdown early, and cruised to a victory against Houston.
With everyone on hand Thursday night against Louisville, Shorter expected the Tigers to light up the scoreboard.
Coach M.C. Miller and the Louisville defense short-circuited those hopes.
Davais Schaffer scored on a 1-yard run and Wyatt Roberts hit C.J. Bates with a 31-yard touchdown pass that helped Louisville defeat Noxubee County 14-12 in the C Spire Wireless “Bright Lights Football” game before a standing-room only crowd at Tiger Stadium.
“It means a lot,” Bates said. “We hadn’t beaten these guys since our ninth-grade year, and we said we were going to come out and play hard. We knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout, and we felt the team that made fewer mistakes was going to win. I feel like we were that team tonight.”
The victory helped Louisville (9-1, 4-0) snap a four-game losing streak in the series, win its ninth game in a row, and take the inside track at first place in Class 4A, Region 4 with a game against Leake Central remaining in the regular season.
Noxubee County (8-2, 3-1), which saw its seven-game winning streak end, will close its regular season next week against Caledonia.
Despite having quarterback Deangelo Ballard and running backs Darrell Robinson and Ladarrell Hunt as close to 100 percent as they have been since the beginning of the season, Noxubee County struggled to cash in. The Tigers outgained the Wildcats 344-188, but stalled in the final third of the field. Louisville’s defense answered the call time and time again, stuffing the run and pressuring Ballard (12 of 30, 160 yards) out of the pocket.
“I thought the offense was going to click at the right time,” Shorter said. “We had our chances. We did what we wanted to do on offense. We rushed the ball, we threw the ball, but we got into the red zone and stalled out tonight.”
The Tigers’ final two series epitomized their frustration. Trailing 14-12, Noxubee County capitalized on a short punt and took over at its 42-yard line with 6 minutes, 42 seconds remaining. A 9-yard run by Hunt (14 carries, 129 yards) and a 19-yard pass from Ballard to Robinson helped the Tigers earn a first-and-10 at the Louisville 19. Two plays later, Robinson broke a 9-yard gain to make it third-and-2 from the 11. Noxubee County appeared ready to run for the first down, but Shorter said Ballard audibled out of the play for a pass. He said Ballard said Louisville had put two linebackers into the hole Noxubee County planned to run into, so he changed the play. Ballard rolled to his right after the switch and then ran out of bounds with the ball to escape a converging defense for a 7-yard loss.
On fourth down, Ballard’s touch pass on the run went off the fingertips of a diving Terrance Barron in the left corner of the end zone.
“He normally makes those plays and they normally hook up,” Shorter said. “We just couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. They didn’t really stop us. We stopped ourselves and made too many mistakes.”
Shorter said he considered inserting Kamal Chamberlain at quarterback to spark the offense, but he stuck with Ballard, who suffered a leg injury against New Hope on Sept. 2 and didn’t return until earlier this month.
Noxubee County’s defense didn’t give up a yard on Louisville’s ensuing three-and-out to give the offense the ball back at the Louisville 45. But Ballard appeared to take his eye off the snap on first down. The ball bounded behind him and he tried to sweep it away from a sliding Louisville player, only to have it continue to bounce until Louisville’s Jeremy Sangster recovered it at the Noxubee County 29.
Shorter said he couldn’t tell what happened on the snap. He said snap problems plagued the Tigers earlier in the game and last week against Houston. Despite rushing for 184 yards, Shorter said he didn’t expect the offense to be as up and down as it was Thursday night.
“We had a few weeks to prepare and with these kids back. I really thought we were going to score some points tonight,” Shorter said. “I have to give coach Miller and the defense credit. They stopped us when they had to.”
Trailing 14-0 late in the second quarter, Noxubee County converted one of its eight trips inside the Louisville 30. Ballard had a 2-yard gain on fourth down to keep the drive alive. His 16-yard run gave the Tigers first-and-goal at the 5 and set up a roll out to the right and 5-yard push pass to Lemadric Macon for a touchdown with a little more than two minutes left before halftime. The kick failed.
Noxubee County had a chance to score again just before halftime. Ballard split two defenders with a 15-yard pass to Chamberlain to begin the drive. A 22-yard pass to Barron pushed the Tigers to the Louisville 18 in the waning seconds, but Ballard fumbled rolling away from pressure and lost 31 yards on second down. Bates’ interception on the next play closed the half.
Noxubee County’s defense set the tone on the opening drive of the second half. After a 3-yard gain on first down, the Tigers hit Roberts on second down and pressured him into an incompletion on third down. Louisville gained only 29 yards in the final 24 minutes, and had only 4 yards until Bates made a one-handed catch for 21 yards in the fourth quarter.
Noxubee County answered on the next drive, converting a fourth-and-10 thanks to a 12-yard pass from Ballard to Jarvis Taylor. Robinson scored on a 1-yard run on the next play, but Ballard’s conversion pass to Ballard was incomplete.
Louisville’s defense rose to the challenge the rest of the way. It must have remembered the “choice” words Miller delivered three plays into the game. After Robinson carried for 19 yards and 1 yard, Hunt raced for 29 yards to give the Tigers and first down at the Wildcats’ 27. But the defense regrouped and stopped a Ballard to Hunt pass for no gain on third down. Ballard’s throw to Terrance Barron on fourth down went high and out of bounds.
“I said a few things to them I would rather not say,” Miller said. “They got it in gear. I don’t know if they were too hyped or too what, but I had to get out there and settled them down.”
Miller said the key was his defense’s ability to pressure Ballard.
“I think we kind of shook the quarterback. That’s the main thing,” Miller said. “He started panicking and trying to do more, and that kind of put pressure on him.
“(The defense) played well and they didn’t give up,” Miller said. “They just sucked it up and kept playing.”
Shorter credited Miller and the Louisville defense and his defense for delivering a championship effort. But he said his offense needs to contribute more if the Tigers are going to get back to Jackson, the site of the Class 4A state title game.
“We gave up two big plays in the first half,” Shorter said. “One was a broken play and a missed assignment that allowed them to break a run. On the other one, I have to give the Bates kid credit. The safety didn’t get over the top fast enough and he beat the corner to make a good catch. But if you take those two plays out I don’t think they score. I am really proud of the defense. Our defense is playing well enough to win a championship and our offense has to help them out.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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