Oak Hill Academy, Starkville Academy and Noxubee County added wins last Friday to keep the teams undefeated on the young season. The Raiders’ defense pitched a shutout for the majority of its game, while the Vols used the passing game to rout its foe coming off a bye week. The Tigers’s defense turned into a turnover machine that allowed its offense to hit its stride. Meanwhile, Victory Christian dropped its season-opener to Unity Christian.

 

Oak Hill Academy 36, Indianola 16

The Raiders coasted to 3-0 to start the season last Friday at Indianola, making that long bus ride back to West Point a joyous one after a 36-16 victory over the Indians. 

Powered by a grueling ground game, Oak Hill finished its first drive of the game in the end zone and ran the scoreboard up to 28-0 by halftime. 

“The first three weeks we’ve been lucky. We’ve been able to score on our opening drive, so it’s always good to set the momentum early,” head coach Tom Goode said. “We were able to score early and put the defense in good shape. I thought for a long time we kept (Indianola) backed up, so that was good for our defense.”

After posting back-to-back shutouts to start the season, Indianola was Oak Hill’s first opponent to find the end zone this season, which came in the fourth quarter when the Raiders’ backups were getting some playing time.  

“The defense is really playing well,” Goode said. “They are running to the football and making plays when they have to.”

Undefeated Oak Hill is back on the field Friday hosting North Delta, and Goode thinks there’s still much to fix.

“We’re still making some mistakes penalty-wise, and some of them are just mental,” Goode said. “Our big thing right now is trying to eliminate all the mistakes because I know you can never play mistake-free, but we have to get closer to it.” 

Up next for the Raiders is a 7 p.m against North Delta on Friday in West Point.  

 

Starkville Academy 33, Winston Academy 7

After a Week 1 win over Chambers Academy, the Volunteers went straight into a bye week instead of hitting the field for another game, something head coach Chase Nicholson said turned into a gift for his team. 

“I think it came at a great time after a very physical Chambers team that gave us a week to rest and also gave us the opportunity to look at us and really look at what we’ve been doing and how we can do things better. … So we took advantage of it and got better,” Nicholson said.

Feeling rejuvenated, the Vols (2-0) cruised to a Week 3 victory over Winston Academy behind Jackson Knight’s three touchdown catches. Nathan Miller drilled a field goal, Miller Shy punched in a touchdown run and Bristo Santucci helped force a safety. SA took a 12-0 lead to halftime and came out of the break and scored the rest of their points in the third quarter. 

“I thought we came out the gate defensively really, really strong. Our offense came out strong, we kind of sputtered for a minute, but we corrected it closer and closer to halftime,” Nicholson said. “I thought we came out of halftime and had a really good showing on both sides. 

“It was exciting. It’s never bad to win. It was exciting and fun to get another win and go out and compete and play football, but by now we’ve put it behind us and are getting ready for the next one.”

The Vols look to go 3-0 at 7 p.m. Friday in an early District 2-4A showdown at East Rankin Academy.

 

Noxubee County 36, Kemper County 12

Kemper took the game’s opening kickoff to the house for six points in a show of early aggression during its game against Noxubee last Friday, but Tigers weren’t worried. 

They lined up, blocked the PAT and went down and scored on their first drive of the game behind a 54-yard run from Laderoun Mosely, made their PAT and never looked back in a victory that moved the team to 2-0 on the season. 

The Tigers’ defense forced two fumbles, and Jamarious Little snagged an interception for a total of three takeaways and their offense was propelled by 190 rushing yards and two scores by Laderoun Mosely, who posted a longest run of 54 yards. 

“I liked the way we controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, offensively and defensively, head coach Teddy Young said. “Defensively, we forced some turnovers and we took care of the ball offensively, so those were some great points for us.” 

He said the Tigers have already made some great strides from their narrow 44-32 season-opening win over Heidelberg. 

“We made less mistakes, and we are just trying to get better every game and I think we did that (last) Friday night.”

Noxubee is back in action at 7 p.m. Friday when West Point comes to town.  

 

Unity Christian 38, Victory Christian 6

Despite a solid defensive effort and strong special teams play, Victory Christian Academy fell to Unity Christian Academy in its season opener Friday night in Columbus. 

Junior linebacker Alex Taylor led the way for VCA with 13 tackles and two forced fumbles, while eighth grader Tristan Taylor contributed seven tackles. Sophomore Maddox Blaylock added an interception and a fumble recovery in the loss and sophomore Willie Roby provided the Eagles’ lone score of the night with a 75-yard kickoff return touchdown.

VCA is back in action Thursday with a home contest against Faith Christian Academy.

Posted in High School Sports

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