JACKSON — The Picayune High School football team’s road to the state championship had been a ground attack.
Once Picayune reached the final game of the Mississippi high school football season, it showed a different look.
Picayune used big plays from the right arm of junior quarterback Benjamin Hickman to defeat Starkville 38-21 in the Class 5A state title game at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium and pull off the school’s first state football championship since before Hickman was born.
“I told my coach that as long as they kept leaving my receivers wide, wide open all I had to was hit them,” who Hickman, who was 4 of 8 for 145 yards and two touchdown passes to senior Justin Mark against man-to-man coverage on the outside.
Starkville coach Jamie Mitchell, who was making his first appearance in a state championship game, shook his head in dismay at his team’s inability to cover Mark.
“He was without a doubt the best wideout we’ve faced all season, and when you put our corners on a island against him then it’s a man-for-man battle,” Mitchell said. “He was a better man than our corners. That’s as simple as I can make it.”
The 160-pound receiver had 98 yards on three catches. He came in with half of Picayune’s completions this season and was Hickman’s favorite target once again in their final game together.
“We worked on the passing game all week because we knew they weren’t going to let us run,” Hickman said. “All I kept telling myself was, ‘It’s time to go up and be a big boy this week because your team needs you’, and I’m thrilled I could help tonight.”
Picayune (13-2) caught the Yellow Jackets off guard with a 64-yard touchdown run on the first snap. Senior tailback Desmond Taylor took the sprint right handoff untouched for his 10th rushing touchdown of the season to give the Maroon Tide all the momentum.
On Picayune’s second pass of the game, Hickman executed a perfect pump fake that froze the defensive back and allowed Mark to slip behind the secondary for a 79-yard touchdown catch. The pitch-and-catch was the longest this season for Picayune, a team that only averaged six passes per game.
“He’s a big-time player that quite frankly turned us in circles all night,” Mitchell said. “You can’t be giving up easy ones in games like this.”
Starkville (12-3) finally got on the scoreboard with a 5-yard run on a option carry by Gabe Myles. The junior quarterback finished with 217 yards and three touchdowns, but only 57 of the yards came through the air and he had two interceptions.
“They brought the blitz every single pass play and I wasn’t prepared for it,” Myles said. “My coaches did prepare me for that, but I wasn’t mentally prepared to handle it. That’s on me tonight.”
Picayune, who was noticeably smaller up front on both sides of the ball than Starkville, had 230 yards offense (142 rushing). The Maroon Tide had only six first downs through 24 minutes but led 17-6 at halftime.
Starkville’s size advantage became a big factor in the third quarter, as the coaching staff shortened the play book and had Myles run draw plays up the middle after taking the shotgun snap. He went untouched for 57 yards on the first possession of the second half, and then ended a nine-play, 52-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak to give the Yellow Jackets their first lead.
Picayune, which hadn’t trailed in the past eight games, answered with a 14-play, 93-yard drive capped by a 15-yard pass from Hickman to Mark that gave the Maroon Tide its final lead.
“I think that drive talks about how our football program really is by fighting for every inch,” Picayune coach Dodd Lee said.
Hickman threw a fade pass to the corner of the end zone and the double coverage tripped itself unintentionally to leave Mark all by himself.
The title was the first for Picayune since 1986, while Starkville finished one game short of a Class 5A state championship for fourth time in its first trip to Jackson since 2001.
“Our school has been waiting for this for so long, and I’m tickled that I could do it with these sets of kids,” Lee said.
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