BRANDON — It wasn’t pretty, but Brandon coach Tyler Peterson will take it.
Mississippi State commit Will Rogers tossed three touchdowns and the Bulldogs used a stiff, stingy second half defense to get past Starkville 27-21 in the season opener Top 10 showdown on Friday night.
“I thought the game could have gone either way and we should’ve played better, but there were some questionable calls but we missed some opportunities,” said Starkville coach Chris Jones. “It is what it is. We will live and learn and get better and get ready for next week.”
Brandon scored the only touchdown in the first quarter on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Josh Montague with 7:26 left.
The second quarter had fireworks.
Starkville tied the game at 7 on a Keyshawn Lawrence 4-yard touchdown run with 6:07 left in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs then regained the lead at 14-7 on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Caleb Anderson.
After a long kickoff return from Amariyon Howard, the Yellowjackets tied it back up at 14 on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Luke Altmyer to Joshua Aka.
On a muffed punt by Starkville, Brandon’s Richard O’Bryant would scoop and score from 49 yards out to give the Bulldogs the lead again at 21-14.
After that Starkville’s Tae Lucious returned the ensuing kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 21 with three seconds left until halftime.
The only score that happened in the second half came with 5:47 left in the third quarter when Rogers hit Montague on a wheel route from 68 yards to give Brandon the 27-21 lead.
Starkville had the ball on the Brandon 1-yard line, but a Luke Altmyer fumble at the goal line on a quarterback keeper halted the Yellow Jackets.
The Starkville rushing attack was held to just 94 yards rushing and Altmyer went 16 of 29 passing for 170 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
The Yellow Jacket defense held Brandon to just 29 yards rushing.
“We got a really young offensive line and missed a few assignments blocking. The more we play the better we will be,” Jones said. “We got to be hungry and just take it one game at a time.”
Rogers ended the night 19 of 37 for 252 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.
“Will is a coach on the field for us and has the freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage and he did good job of that tonight. We didn’t do a good job of running the ball tonight due to their front seven being so dominant,” said Brandon coach Tyler Peterson. “We had some mismatches outside and took advantage of those. Getting a 6A win is never easy.”
The Yellow Jackets (0-1) will host Oxford next in the Little Egg Bowl, while Brandon (1-0) will travel to Madison Central.
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