CALEDONIA — Senior lineman Logan Canerdy had a sack on the Caledonia High School football team’s final defensive possession of the season.
Undeterred, Itawamba Agricultural High kept driving. It moved the football until a strip and fumble recovery by sophomore linebacker Kelvin Robinson.
If it felt like a passing of the torch, that would make sense.
Caledonia lost to Itawamba AHS 31-0 Thursday before a packed house on Homecoming in a Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A, Region 2 game.
It was the final regular-season game for both teams. Itawamba AHS (9-2, 4-1 region) will play host to the first round of the playoffs next Friday. Caledonia (0-10, 0-5) will put away the memories of a winless season.
“This team is going to do some great things next year,” Canerdy said. “I hope they learned something from (the seniors). There were only five of us, so there was only so much we could do. The year didn’t go as planned, but a lot of these young guys have a chance to be special.”
Caledonia coach Ricky Kendrick didn’t mince words when he talked about next season. He told his team after the game the 2018 season would begin the next day.
“We don’t have the athleticism or speed to match up in our region,” said Kendrick, who just finished his first season of a second stint as the school’s coach. “I don’t think we matched up with any team in the region, and we got to fix that. We didn’t have the athleticism. We didn’t have the foot speed.
“The good news is this team played hard. You could say that about the whole season. Even the last couple of weeks, when we were out of everything, we kept battling and playing hard. When the younger guys play with that kind of heart, it shows they are hungry. You can make that into something.”
One of those players is Robinson. At 5-foot-8, 140 pounds, Robinson, who is undersized for his position and plays with heart and passion, echoed both of Kendrick’s statements about his club. Recounting the fumble recovery brought a smile to Robinson’s eyes.
“I really thought I could have a scoop and score. That’s what I wanted,” Robinson said. “I could hear coach in my head saying, ‘Fall on the ball. Make sure we get it,’ so that’s what I did. It felt good to have that one last highlight.”
Highlights were few and far between for Caledonia in a season that featured plenty of injuries. The Confederates lost another starter on the first possession Thursday. Kendrick turned to his assistants and said, “That is No. 22” when referencing the number of injuries for the team.
“We had all kinds of injuries, and that made things tough,” Canerdy said. “From week to week, you never really knew who was going to be out there. That made consistency hard. We just couldn’t catch any breaks. We couldn’t get anything going in the right direction.”
Thursday was another example. On the second play, an apparent halfback pass went for 40 yards. However, the officials correctly ruled two forward passes on the play and brought the play back.
Itawamba AHS fumbled the second half kickoff, but Caledonia gave the takeaway back two plays later.
Still, Caledonia competed.
“I think our effort speaks for itself,” Robinson said. “Coach does a lot of yelling, but his motivational speeches are really good, in the pregame and at halftime. He always kept us going. It was an expectation we were going to play hard. There were a lot of sophomores out there alongside me. That is going to help us out next year.
“We have been at the bottom. Now it’s time to fight back up.”
Kendrick said the new season will begin today with a detailed plan in place to get the Confederates back to playing competitive football. The program was a year removed from making the playoffs in Andy Crotwell’s last season as coach.
“Essentially, everybody is back,” Kendrick said. “We are going to add to that a class of about 40 eighth-graders that we really like. The future for Caledonia football is very bright. We are going to be back sooner than later.”
On this night, Itawamba AHS had too much firepower. The Indians were held to a field goal in their first three possessions.
A fumble recovery in the end zone made it 10-0. The lead grew in the second quarter on two rushing touchdowns from Jamal Shumpert and another from Ike Chandler.
There was no scoring in a second half played with a running clock.
Itawamba AHS had 408 yards. Chandler ran 11 times for 139 yards. Caledonia was held to 34 yards and didn’t have a first down until the final minute.
As the horn sounded, tears were shed by the handful of seniors. Parents, members of the Homecoming court, cheer leaders, and players gathered at midfield for a prayer.
“Playing here with these guys has been special,” Canerdy said. “We didn’t win nearly as many as wanted, but it was an incredible experience.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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