On the first snap of the game for French Camp, the ball went sailing past quarterback Ethan Wright for a 20-yard loss.
Coach Nathan Wright said it only got worse from there as Starkville Academy ran out to a 35-0 halftime lead and took a 53-0 win over the Panthers on Friday night.
Wright said there was nothing pretty about the game, except the execution of the Starkville Academy offense.
“It was ugly from the beginning and never got any better,” Wright said. “It was an old-fashioned beat down. I don’t think we ever blinked at stopping them. They pretty much did what they wanted to do. They handled us on offense and kind of pushed us around all night. That’s the long and short of it. It just wasn’t a good night.”
Starkville came out rolling and took care of business early as they scored 21 points in the first quarter and 14 in the second to lead 35-0 at the half. With a running clock in the second half, Starkville scored six in the third and 12 in the fourth for the final of 53-0.
“That was the best Starkville Academy team I have seen,” Wright said. “They were very good on both sides of the football. They handled us up front on both sides of the ball. They had some good receivers and were crisp in everything they did. They blocked well up front and stayed on blocks and were very impressive on offense and defense.”
Wright said he hopes the game will serve as a lesson to his team.
“I hope it will really open our eyes to the intensity of the game and how hard you have to play,” Wright said. “I hope they see about how you play the game the right way and we will see if it makes any difference or not. I doubt we would play anybody better than Starkville Academy this year. They were a really good football team.”
On offense, the Panthers had 149 yards of total offense with 148 coming on the ground. Silas Hodge had 87 yards on 13 carries while Ethan Wright had 47 yards on 14 carries.
“We did some things that shot ourselves in the foot,” Wright said. “I thought we moved the ball at times. On the opening drive, we had trouble with the snap and lost 20 yards. We ran two plays that would have gotten us a first down but that just sets you off on a bad not to start with. It seemed like every drive, we did something to hurt ourselves. We just can’t make that many mistakes and hope to win.”
On defense, Ethan Wright and Logan Wright each had fie tackles apiece while Avery Summers, Casen Shurden, Silas Hodge and Max Bronson each had four tackles apiece. Hodge also caused a fumble while Bronson blocked a field goal attempt.
This week’s game
The Panthers will try to find the win column this week as they take on winless Nanih Waiya at home.
The Warriors are also 0-3 on the season with losses to Noxapater (27-6), East Webster (55-3) and Choctaw Central (26-6).
“I think both of us are very down compared to normal,” Wright said. “They are another 2A team on our schedule. I’m sure they will do what they have been doing and run power and counter right at you. They have hard-nosed kids. We are still trying to get guys in the right spots out there. We are going to work on the little things and hopefully we can make a big turn this week. It’s been frustrating week after week.”
Last year, Nanih Waiya won 10-0.
