SA vs. Park Lane: Week 12

Photos by Mike Brown Sports Photography

Vols Show Fight In Season-Ending Loss

McCOMB – With just over a minute remaining in Starkville Academy’s final game and season here Friday night, one of refs put his arm around Vols’ coach Chase Nicholson and uttered the words “Your boys played hard tonight, they fought their tails off.”

He was spot on.

Parklane Academy went on to blank SA 26-0 in the MAIS Class 4A Division II playoff semifinal played before a packed house at Cowart-Smith Stadium. It was a final score that was a bit misleading, one not nearly indicative of just how close and competitive the game actually played out.

The reigning Class 5A State champion Pioneers, a heavy favorite coming in, led just 6-0 at halftime and 13-0 through three quarters before finally breaking the game open with a pair of long touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. It was certainly a far cry from the first meeting here earlier this season when the Vols trailed 24-0 at halftime and 37-0 through three quarters.

“(SA) is a very well-coached football team,” Parklane coach Ron Rushing said. “That staff does their homework, you can tell. I was really impressed watching them beat Copiah last week. They had a great game plan for that game, and they had a great game plan for this game against us tonight. I’ve been telling my guys all week this is a different team than the team we played earlier in the year. (SA) stuck it to us early. I told my guys at halftime we’re going to be in a dogfight until the end.”

Parklane improved to 10-1 and advances to Friday’s 7 p.m. Class 4A Division II State Championship at Jackson Academy. The Pioneers will face 10-2 Heritage Academy, a 22-18 winner over Magnolia Heights in the other semifinal. Parklane has won 22 of its last 25 games dating back to last season, including a 15-game winning streak at one point. The Pioneers’ only three losses the past two seasons came against MRA (twice) and Jackson Prep – a loss it avenged 18-7 earlier this season.

SA, coming off a 10-7 victory over Copiah Academy in last week’s playoff opener, finished 7-5. Four of the Vols’ five losses came against teams that will be playing in this week’s championship games – Parklane (twice), Heritage, and Hartfield – and the other came against Magnolia Heights.

“The scoreboard doesn’t really show what the game was like,” Nicholson said. “At the end of the day, the score is the score. I get that. But our guys came out tonight and played extremely hard. I’m proud of them. I know (Parklane) knows they were in a football game tonight. We didn’t make it easy on them . . . they didn’t have an easy trip to Jackson.”

Parklane finished with 296 total yards – 147 rushing, 149 passing – and 14 first downs. Running back Tanner Kyzar, who is working his way back into form after recently returning from a dislocated shoulder injury sustained in the 37-0 Week 5 win over SA, had a game-high 109 yards on 18 carries. Quarterback Braxton Hughes completed 6 of 15 passes for 149 yards and accounted for three touchdowns -two passing, one rushing.

SA, meanwhile, finished with 244 total yards – 104 rushing, 140 passing – and 14 first downs. Brantley Berkery led the Vols with 64 yards on seven carries. Freshman quarterback Jack Northcutt, who was scrambling for his life most of the night, completed 11 of a season-high 32 attempts for 140 yards.

SA had 73 snaps on offense compared to 46 for Parklane.

Kyzar’s 19-yard touchdown run with 6:20 remaining in the first quarter accounted for the only points of the first half. Hughes extended Parklane’s lead to 13-0 with 5:44 left in the third quarter on a 14-yard scoring run, capping a run-heavy, 13-play, 72-yard drive. That’s where the score remained until the fourth quarter when Northcutt, trying to make something happen offensively, was picked off on back-to-back possessions. Hughes made SA pay, tossing a 55-yard catch-and-run touchdown to Brennan Ellison on the first play following the first INT, then threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Rushing two plays after the second INT.

It was simply too much to overcome for SA, which went scoreless in eight quarters against Parklane’s defense this season. The Vols had their opportunities in the first half, driving to the Pioneers’ 32, 36, 34 and 27 yard line on separate occasions. They came away empty each time, though.

Perhaps SA’s best scoring opportunity came midway through the first half when Northcutt slightly overthrew wideout Jackson Knight, who was open in the end zone after beating his defender in man-to-man coverage. Another big moment in the game came early in the fourth quarter when Parklane’s Davis Carruth, punting from the back of his own end zone, somehow snagged a high snap with one hand and just got the punt away. He saved at least two points, if not more, with that spectacular save.

Knight finished with a game-high six catches for 121 yards.

“We got after it in the first half,” Nicholson said. “We took some shots on offense . . . we were right there. We had that one pass that was just a little long. And that was a really big play by their punter, especially at the time. The defense did what it does, it played hard and kept us in the game. We were close, we really were.”

SA’s football team was hit with the sickness bug early in the week, causing several players to miss practice throughout the week leading into the game. The attrition continued in the game, as one key player after another went down to injury. The Vols, already without starting linebacker Brody Burkley, starting cornerback Thomas Graves and starting wide receiver Owen Couvillion, lost starting safety Nate Fratesi and defensive back/wide receiver Blake Little to injuries during the game.

“The guys went out there and played as hard as they could,” Nicholson said. “That’s all you can ask for, and that’s what they did.”

Nicholson has led SA to winning seasons in 10 of his 11 seasons at the helm. The Vols averaged 8.5 wins per year in his first nine seasons, including a State championship in 2017 and State runner-up finish in 2019, prior to last year’s 4-7 outlier. His club bounced back this year, winning seven games and making it to the second round of the playoffs.

“We started off 4-0 then we came down here and got beat,” Nicholson said. “That loss didn’t derail us, I think it motivated us. You look at who we lost to, all those teams were in the semifinals and three of them are going to be playing in state championship games next week. So, when you look at all the wins and losses, it brought us to where we are. It’s like we told these guys all week, we’re one of the four teams left because we’re a good football team. We showed that tonight. We battled and battled week in and week out, and we did that again tonight. I’m extremely proud of my guys, I’m proud of the season. It was a fun group. I loved coaching them.”