Asking Louisville to march into Starkville’s territory on Friday night and deliver the first loss on Yellow Jacket Field in over five years was a bit much, but they weren’t going to back down from the challenge.
Coach Tyrone Shorter challenged his team to go into the game with no fear and see what could happen on the other end of it. Though within just one score at the half, the Yellow Jackets proved too deep and too talented of a Class 6A team for the Class 4A Wildcats to take down and they dropped a 35-7 affair.
It wasn’t the outcome that Shorter wanted and the team left with some bumps and bruises, but he couldn’t have asked for much more from an effort standpoint. He tipped his cap to his former player at Noxubee County Chris Jones, the SHS coach, and is ready to move on from it.
“I’m pleased with this team. We fought,” Shorter said. “Starkville is a big 6A school and we were in there for a minute and then they started making some plays. We’re fine. This is a good football team that we played and it showed tonight.”
It was a game in which SHS’ front seven defensively was too physical to handle for four quarters. Star defensive tackle Jaylan Ware was a handful as he has been for most teams and he racked up nine tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and a sack. The Louisville offense gave up 15 tackles for loss and five sacks.
The Wildcats’ defense took on the challenge of facing the high-powering boys from SHS and did their part in the first half. The Yellow Jackets moved the ball with ease on the first possession with Luke Altmyer at quarterback and scored two touchdowns on drives of over 70 yards to go up 14-0.
From there, the Wildcats calmed down and played their brand of football.
LHS (2-2) began to get stops and its offense started to get comfortable. Michael Foster would break through with a big run as he shed a couple of tacklers and ran 31 yards into the end zone for the score right before halftime to close the game to 14-7 and the Wildcats were right back in business.
“I thought we did a great job for what it was,” Shorter said. “Those first two touchdowns they were in tempo and caught us out of position, but we settled down and started playing a good football game. We started playing really good. They’re a great football team and we just couldn’t catch a break.”
The bad breaks began in the third quarter when SHS manufactured a long drive that got them to the 1 yard line. They brought in linebacker Keyshawn Lawrence to bully his way into the end zone and it appeared to the Louisville side that before he got there, the ball popped out and was recovered by the Wildcats.
Instead, the play was ruled a touchdown and the Jackets began to pull away as they were up 21-7 heading to the fourth quarter. SHS has closed strong in the fourth quarter for most of the first four games of the season and they did again on this one as the defense kept its stranglehold on the Wildcats and they put together two more touchdowns to make the score worse than the game actually was.
Passing was hard to come by at times for Drea Shumaker with the Jackets bearing down on him all night. He ended with 106 yards on 11-of-24 with Kaleb Mosley his top target hauling in five passes for 76 yards. Niselbyion Kirk had a 24-yard reception but was held in check the rest of the game.
The rushing attack was promising for Shorter as Michael Foster finished with 10 carries for 119 yards. Two of his carries netted 104 yards as he broke off two big runs.
“We thought we could come in and run the football if we could get (Ware) blocked. At times we did,” Shorter said. That’s what we’re going to have to do if we’re going to go far is establish a run game. I think we’re going to have to run the ball and pass it.”
Penalties were a major issue for the team. Personal foul penalties and a couple of pre snap penalties were killer as they gave up 88 yards on those flags alone.
The good news for the Wildcats is they’re done with the toughest part of their schedule. Louisville has now put to bed games against Noxubee County, West Point and Starkville and they now prepare for nothing but 4A ball games the rest of the way and none of the seven teams have a winning record through four games.
The next two games close out the non-conference schedule as the Wildcats host Shannon and Yazoo City in consecutive weeks. Shannon comes in on Friday with a 1-3 record and losses to Corinth, Noxubee County and Houston. The latter two losses were one-score ball games in which the Red Raiders could have easily taken home the win.
Having lost to Noxubee County earlier this year, Shorter is paying attention to this team and the capabilities that they have and not the early-season record.
“We’re going to have to regroup and get a good game plan together,” Shorter said. “It’s just good to go back to playing 4A football. These guys just have to stay healthy and hold their head up.”
