The Adams County Christian School football team might be the first Mississippi Association of Private Schools (MAIS) team to win a state championship with a sub-.500 record.
No. 14 seed ACCS will get that chance next week against No. 1 Indianola Academy following its 28-10 victory against No. 2 seed Heritage Academy here Friday evening in the third round of the MAIS Class AAA playoffs at C.L. Mitchell Field.
Indianola Academy (13-1) had little trouble in its third-round matchup with a 34-3 victory against Central Hinds Academy.
Midway through the month of October, ACCS was cruising along with a 7-0 record, all but two of which came by 28- to 45-point margins.
But the Rebels’ streak came to an abrupt halt when the MAIS vacated those wins because the school had used an ineligible player.
With such a disastrous announcement, it would have been easy for the Rebels to falter, but coach David King rallied his troops to make the playoffs. ACCS started its journey with a 30-19 victory against Bowling Green in the first round and followed it up with a 32-13 victory against Starkville Academy last week.
Against Heritage Academy, ACCS (4-7), which has outscored opponents 483-172, wasn’t able to get much going in the first half, as the Patriots held a 7-6 lead after two quarters. Both team’s defenses grabbed the spotlight, as ACCS had only 128 yards, while Heritage Academy gained 122.
On the Rebels’ initial series, however, it appeared they were running on all cylinders as they drove from their 28-yard line to the Heritage 35. All of the yards came on eight-consecutive running plays. On the next play, ACCS senior quarterback Sterling Yarbrough hooked up with classmate Kemari Clark for the first touchdown. The try for two failed when D.J. Stampley fumbled.
The next two possessions resulted in a pair of three-and-outs for both teams, but the Rebels’ turnover came via the game’s first fumble on the punt snap, which resulted in a 7-yard loss. The turnover allowed Heritage Academy to take possession at the ACCS 40.
Two plays later, the Patriots fumbled. The mistakes continued on ACCS’ next play, when Noel Fisher intercepted a Yarbrough pass near midfield and returned it to the Rebels’ 19.
Heritage Academy coach Sean Harrison immediately reached into his bag of tricks for a pass that went from quarterback Carter Putt to Moak Griffin, who then threw to Fisher to complete the 19-yard scoring play with one minute left in the first quarter.
Lex Rogers’ kick gave Heritage Academy its first lead, 7-6.
A rarely called offensive face mask penalty on ACCS kept the ball near midfield on the Rebels’ ensuing possession. A 15-yard punt turned the ball back to Heritage Academy. That possession went nowhere. Rogers’ punt then was downed at the ACCS 26, from where the Rebels mounted their longest drive of the game — a nine-play march that reached the Heritage Academy 30 with a little more than two-and-a-half minutes to play in the second quarter.
Facing a fourth-and-four, King elected to go for it, but Yarbrough’s pass fell incomplete to give the Patriots their last possession of the first half. Three plays later, a 19-yard loss brought Rogers in for a punt that Clark to the Patriots’ 19 as time expired.
Heritage Academy increased its lead to 10-6 on its first possession of the second half on a 32-yard field goal by Rogers. But two pass completions from Yarbrough to Clark for 36 yards and to Gloston Magee for 20 more set up a 10-yard Jakarius Caston scamper to the end zone. On the two-point try, Austin Dotson knocked down Yarbrough’s pass in the end zone to keep the score 12-10.
The Patriots responded with a first-down, 22-yard pickup on a Putt-to-Kelvin “K.J.” Smith pass completion, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and an 8-yard sack brought Rogers on for another punt.
Eight plays later, all of which came on the ground, Caston scored on a 4-yard run, but the try for two came up short when kicker Yohan Thompson’s boot was wide to leave the score at 18-10.
After an exchange of fourth-down punts, Heritage Academy found itself back at its 20. But one run resulted in zero yardage and it was followed by two sacks of Putt, the second of which was in the end zone for a 12-yard loss and a safety that made it 20-10.
Any hope Heritage Academy had for mounting a comeback ended on a lost fumble at the Patriots’ 18, which was returned by Clark to the 6 with a little more than two minutes to play.
Two plays later, Yarbrough scored on a quarterback sneak and Dawson Parker picked up the two-point conversion to account for the final margin.
Heritage Academy had one last opportunity to cut into ACCS’ lead after Banks Hyde returned the kickoff 55 yards, but the last-ditch scoring attempt died on an incomplete pass at the 19 as time expired.
“As a team, the fight was there,” Harrison said. “It was a great effort from whistle to whistle, and I couldn’t be more proud of their effort.”
The bright spot for the Patriots was their defensive performance, which limited ACCS, which entered the game averaging a little more then 40 points per game.
“Russ (defensive coordinator Whiteside), did a heck of an unbelievable job tonight,” Harrison said. “He had a great game plan and outside of the first quarter. Our offense just put the defense in too many bad situations.”
Harrison said untimely penalties, turnovers, and a lack of a passing attack didn’t help the offense.
“We couldn’t get the passing game going because we had problems protecting the quarterback,” Harrison said. “Credit that to Adams County because they had a great game plan. They out-schemed us, and they have tremendous athletes in the secondary.”
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