In a historic matchup of public school versus private school in Winston County, it was Winston Academy that took the win over Noxapater.
The Patriots used a sharp passing game to come out and take a 27-15 win over the Tigers on Friday night.
“I thought we played hard and I was pleased with that,” Rigsby said. “When you come in, you try to establish a culture of playing hard and playing as a family and I thought we did that on Friday night. We played physical and we played fast and I was proud of that.”
Rigsby said the Patriots were sharp in the passing game early.
“You can tell they are well coached and had a good scheme against us,” Rigsby said. “They came out and caught us in some situations that we didn’t match up well with what they were doing. They were able to get ahead and once they did that, our kids never quit. We continued to play hard and make plays. I think our defense was good and it helped us in the game.We made some plays to put us back in it.”
One of Noxapater’s scores was an interception return from Kyle Phillips, who also caught a touchdown pass fro Donnie Chung. The Tigers were without five starters who were quarantined this past week.
Rigsby said he saw improvement in his running game this week.
“I can see the emergence of the running game,” Rigsby said. “And we didn’t have K.D. Carter so when he gets back that will only make us better. The clock has to be our friend. We have to be able to run the football and shorten the game. Winston passed a lot so they didn’t help us with the clock. But we started to emerge as a good running team.”
Before the game, the Patriots had a moment where they honored Noxapater’s Hunter Yates, who passed away this summer in a vehicle accident.
“I thought the balloon celebration before the game was special,” Rigsby said. “I wanted to thank the people from Winston for honoring him. It may have joined us all together that we are all the same. I appreciate that and thought it meant a lot to our kids. I appreciate them agreeing to play to us. I hope it continues to be a tradition between the two teams.”
This week’s game
The Tigers will try to get their first win this week as they host Class 1A Coffeeville.
The Pirates are 1-1 on the season. They opened with a 21-2 win over Bruce but lost 31-6 last week to J.Z. George
“They have athletes but I think my guys are hungry for the win,” Rigsby said. “We are preparing to go get our first win. We have been playing teams our of our class with more players than we have. I wanted to play teams with more numbers. Hopefully, we will be able to shot that we are a very good 1A team this week.”
Rigsby said the Pirates will present challenges to his defense.
“They have some big offensive linemen and try to run the ball the majority of the time and shorten the game,” Rigsby said. “We have to be aware of their running back and receivers. They come off the ball and are very aggressive. I think if we can do that, we will have a good chance to win.”
