This has been the best high school football season I have had in my 27 years covering the sport for this newspaper.
It’s been fun because we enjoy covering winners, and you guys like reading about winners. And that’s just the way things have gone so far.
Pillow Academy is 8-2 and was off Friday night thanks to a first-round bye in the MAIS Class 5A playoffs. The Mustangs amassed the most regular-season wins they have had since 2010 — when the school claimed its last state crown.
Head coach Tripp McCarty and the Mustangs came just one play away from making it to the state championship last year. They will have to get past Hartfield (8-3), a winner Friday against Park Place Christian, next week in the quarterfinals.
The Mustangs had their best regular season in McCarty’s six years at the school and are primed for a run at a state title.
Greenwood capped off its best regular season in more than 30 years Friday night with a 34-0 rout of Yazoo City at Bulldog Stadium, where GHS will be again next Friday in the opening round of the North 4A playoffs.
The Bulldogs roll into the postseason at 10-0 — the first undefeated regular season mark since GHS did it in back-to-back seasons (1987-88) under head coach David Bradberry. The Dogs went on to lose in both state title contests. This year’s team is out to bring the Bulldogs their first state crown since the MHSAA went to the current class system in the mid-1980s.
Over in Carrollton, Bo Milton has done a wonderful job, arguably his best yet in his five years as the head coach at Carroll Academy. Like Pillow, the Rebels posted their most wins under Milton and carried that over into the playoffs Friday with a 52-0 thrashing of Newton.
And to make things even more exciting across the area, Amanda Elzy is having unprecedented success. Before this season, the Panthers had won just one conference crown in the last 30 years, with that one coming 1995. They are 7-3 after Friday’s 40-0 beatdown of Humphreys County.
Anyone who has seen Elzy plays understands this team will have at least a puncher’s chance with its home-run ability offensively. That all starts and ends with senior running back Dephabian Fant. The diminutive dynamo is cat-quick and lightening-fast and can cause nightmares for opposing coaches.
There seems to be at least two common denominators in all of our area teams’ successes — great leadership at the top and dynamic players who can change the game in the drop of a hat.
At Leflore County, senior Maurice Edwards has the Tigers rolling into the postseason at 7-3 and riding a seven-game win streak. His move back to running back from quarterback has sparked the offense, and his play along the defensive line has been steady.
Much like his brother before him, Booker T. Chambers, Kobe Chambers is Greenwood’s top playmaker. He is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball. He caught three passes for 80 yards in Friday’s win over Yazoo City, two of which went for touchdowns.
See what I mean.
For Pillow, this team will go as far as its potent aerial attack — led by senior quarterback Shane Houston Stephens — can carry it. Stephens owns almost every single PA passing record. He just may be the best private school quarterback I have seen in my time covering the Mustangs.
That’s why all these players, and some more, are considered the top candidates for the 2019 Commonwealth Player of the Year, to be announced at the end of the season.
It seems like just yesterday the season was starting on a muggy, warm night in August. And now we finally have some real football weather — and more importantly, real good football.
Enjoy your postseason.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
