After the final horn blew, Noxapater coach Casey Orr didn’t feel like the the Tigers lost on Friday night, they just ran out of time.
In a rain-soaked contest, St. Andrews held on for a 14-6 win over the Tigers in the season opener for both team.
Despite the loss, Orr was proud of the way his team played against the MHSAA Class 3A Saints.
“I thought we played hard,” Orr said. “I wasn’t upset with the effort. We stood toe to toe with a 3A playoff team. We weren’t able to take advantage of some of their mistakes. It was some adverse weather conditions, that’s for sure. And we had some chances. After we cut into their lead, they bobbled a punt and we fumbled it right back. I thought we played well. I told my guys if we have that kind of effort, we will win a lot of games this season and will get some breaks that didn’t go our way.”
The Tigers won on the stats page as they ended the night with 179 yards of total offense. The Tigers held St. Andrews to 48 yards passing and 51 rushing for 99 total yards.
“Offensively, we weren’t very effective in the first half,” Orr said. “We stayed on defense too much and had too many three and outs on offense. I thought in the second half, we started to see them buy into a physical, downhill running tea. We started to see them to be more physical. I don’t feel like we lost, we just ran out of time.”
St. Andrews scored on its first drive of the game on a 48-yard pass for a 6-0 lead.
The rest of the first half was a defensive contest that featured three turnovers and five punts.
“You can take a lot of positives,” Orr said. “We had three fumbles that hurt us and were still in the game. St. Andrews' winning touchdown came off a special teams mistake. They are a no-huddle team and it was tough on our lineman. They had to play a lot of downs and were gassed but continued to play hard.”
The punt fest continued in the second half, mainly on St. Andrews’ half of the field. On Noxapater’s third possession of the season, Noxapater fumbled the snap from the punt and gave St. Andrews the ball on their 1-yard line. St. Andrews then scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to take a 14-0 lead.
Noxapater then put together its best drive of the game as they drove 70 yards in eight plays, thanks to some big runs by quarterback K.D. Carter. Carter finished off the drive with a 13-yard run with 20 seconds left in the third quarter. The PAT failed and St. Andrews led 14-6.
“I thought the rain actually hurt us more than them,” Orr said. “I thought it hurt our speed. They still threw it around a a lot. I thought we saw a lot of improvement from week one to week two. I thought our pass defense held up against a senior quarterback who could go play in college. I thought they grew up fast. There were a lot of positives. There is no such thing as a morale victory but I was pleased with our effort.”
Carter led the Tigers with 83 yards on 15 carries while Joshua McClendon had 61 yards on 10 carries.
Ryan Whitfield and Kyler Carter each had eight tackles apiece while McClendon had five tackles and four pass breakups. Chase Ray and Dontavious Rush each had interceptions and Sawyer Roberts had a fumble recovery.
The Tigers will return home as they take on J.Z. George this week. The Jaguars lost 19-14 to Class 1A Okolona in their season opener.
“It was a close game,” Orr said. “They are another quality 3A opponent. They were more physical than I thought they would be. It will be a tough game.”
Last year, the Tigers beat J.Z. George 33-6.
