Sa vs. Heritage: Week 9

Little Comes Up Big For Vols

COLUMBUS – Late in the third quarter of Friday night’s emotionally-charged Starkville Academy-Heritage Academy rivalry game here at jam-packed C.L. Mitchell Field, momentum had swapped sidelines. The Vols had watched what was a double-digit halftime lead turn into a three-point deficit following back-to-back Patriots’ touchdowns.

If SA was going to defeat Heritage for a second straight year – and simultaneously keep its faint playoff hopes alive – somebody had to step up and make a play. Turns out, it was somebodies. Namely quarterback Luke McKenzie and wide receiver Blake Little. Who else on this night, right?

Facing a third-and-goal from the Heritage 15-yard line following a holding call, McKenzie took the shotgun snap, immediately looked right and didn’t like what he saw. Feeling pressure, he rolled out to his right where he quickly encountered two Heritage defenders. He put on the brakes, made an off-balance, pirouetting spin move, and reversed field back to his left. While all that was going on, Little was maneuvering his way open in the end zone.

“At that point, I could hear everybody yelling my name,” McKenzie said, with a chuckle. “So I stopped and looked back to my right. That’s when I saw Blake.”

McKenzie lofted a perfectly-placed pass in the direction of Little, who running to his left toward the sideline toe-tapped in the end zone and snagged the ball for a highlight-worthy go-ahead touchdown. The Vols went on to win 30-27, surviving a frenetic Patriots’ rally in the waning minutes.

That play, one of many huge plays turned in by SA on this cool, crisp late October night in the Golden Triangle, helped stem the tide - and in retrospect may have helped salvage the Vols’ season, which has been teetering on life support for some time now. Time will tell.

A loss would have assured a losing season – SA’s first since the 2013-’14 season – and ended any possibility of making the playoffs. Instead, the Vols improved to 4-5 overall, 2-1 in MAIS District 1-5A and put themselves in position to possibly win the district title with a win over Magnolia Heights this upcoming week at J.E. Logan Field.

Coach Chase Nicholson’s squad currently sits No. 13 in the MAIS 5A power points. Only the top 12 teams qualify for the playoffs. Therefore, a loss to Magnolia Heights could mean the end of the road. However, a win would catapult the Vols’ into the playoffs and a three-way tie for first place in the district. If Heritage beats Bayou, or SA beats Magnolia Heights by 13 or more points, SA would not only win the district but also secure a No. 3 overall seed.

Craziness? You betcha.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios that could still happen,” Nicholson said. “Bottom line is we need to beat Magnolia Heights. That’s first and foremost. Then we’ll see where the chips fall after that.”

Heritage dropped to 5-4 and 1-2. The Patriots have now lost three straight following a five-game winning streak. SA waited 2,175 days to taste victory over Heritage prior to last year’s win in Starkville, which snapped an eight-game winning streak in the series. Now, the Vols own two wins over the Patriots in a 365-day span.

The latest came in large part due to the heroics of Little, who was anything but when his team needed him the most. On offense, he caught four passes for 90 yards, three of which went for touchdowns. He had scoring catches of 32, 34 and the aforementioned 15-yarder. On defense, he intercepted a pass deep in Heritage territory early in the second quarter, setting up SA’s first touchdown. And he also broke up a pass on a 4th-and-long play deep in SA territory midway through the fourth quarter, thwarting a Heritage drive. Special teams you ask? Yep, he played a pivotal role there, as well, with several big returns that helped set up McKenzie and Co. in favorable field position throughout.

No doubt No. 18 will be BMOC this week at SA.

“I knew I had to step up to help my team win, especially with (fellow wide receiver Owen) Couvillion out (injury),” said Little, a junior who came into the game with 11 catches for a team-high 253 yards and two touchdowns. “We all knew how important this game was.”

Said Nicholson: “Blake did a great job. We thought during the week we would be able to get a couple of passes over the top to him. He’s such a great route runner, and he’s a big-time playmaker. He’s always been a talented player, but we’ve really seen his comfort level go up in the past couple of weeks, especially in the secondary. He does a great job on both sides of the ball, and on special teams. He’s an impact player for sure.”

SA finished with 307 yards of total offense – 175 rushing on 41 carries, and 132 yards passing. That balanced attack resulted in 30 points, the most the Vols have scored since a 35-31 win over Chambers Academy (Alabama) way back in Week 2. They came in averaging just 18.5 points per game, one of many reasons most pundits viewed Heritage as the favorite entering the game.

Nicholson fired a warning to those who doubted his team during the pep rally earlier in the day. “Come watch us play,” he yelled into the microphone. “We are going to prove those doubters wrong!”

He was right. The final outcome didn’t come without some trepidation, though, in a game that was befitting of this heated rivalry staged between schools located just 27.7 miles apart.

Heritage opened the game with a successful onside kick, which led to an early 7-0 lead. From the I can’t believe it’s true department, SA has now been out-scored 71-7 in the first quarter this year and has yet to score any offensive points in the first 12 minutes. The Vols’ lone first quarter points all season came courtesy of Graham Hancock’s 90-yard kickoff return last week against Jackson Academy.

SA responded with 16 unanswered points to take a 16-7 lead into halftime, marking the first time it has led at intermission this season. The Patriots then opened the third quarter with back-to-back scoring drives to go ahead 19-16. Once again, the Vols answered back in a big way as McKenzie and Little hooked up on a pair of touchdown passes to help their team surge ahead 30-19 early in the fourth quarter.

Sandwiched in between those two touchdown passes was an interception by defensive lineman Draper Williams at midfield. Blake’s pass breakup ended Heritage’s next drive, then the defense came up big again on the Patriots’ next drive, keeping them out of the end zone on four consecutive plays inside the 10-yard line following a fumble.

That goal line stand would loom large. Backed up deep in its own territory, SA intentionally took a safety on fourth down to make it 30-21. The Patriots then returned the ensuing kickoff to the SA 24-yard line, setting up a touchdown to cut the lead to 30-27 with two minutes remaining. Heritage failed to convert the two-point conversion for a third time on the evening, leaving the lead at three points.

Heritage’s onside kick bounced around like a pinball, even hitting a helmet of a SA player at one point, before the Vols were finally able to secure the loose pigskin at their own 35-yard line. Whew, disaster avoided. The Patriots emptied all of their timeouts in the comeback bid, so all SA had to do was take a knee on three straight snaps to run out the clock.

“It feels great,” Nicholson said. “Winning is sure better than losing. There was so much around this game. We’ll enjoy it, we’ll celebrate it . . . love every second of it. But then we’re going to get back to work on Sunday. We knew we hadn’t played our best game yet, and we just did that . . . we played our best game of the season. We’re not done yet, though. We’ve got to turn around and do it again next week.”

Magnolia Heights, led by multi-talented quarterback Cole Prosek, enters 8-2 overall and 3-0 in district play. The Chiefs have won seven straight, including a 31-10 win over Pillow Academy this past week, since back-to-back losses to MRA and Northpoint Christian earlier in the season.

SA has dominated the series as of late, winning 10 of the last 11. The Chiefs’ lone win over the Vols during that span came two seasons ago in Starkville. The Vols clinched the district title a year ago with a tightly-contested 12-10 victory in Senatobia