Tripp McCarty has brought new life to Pillow Academy football.
It was evident Friday night with the enthusiasm of the fans and the hustle of his players in a 42-14 victory over North Delta in front of an overflow crowd of nearly 3,000 at Bill Davis Field.
The Mustangs dominated the overmatched Green Wave for three quarters before easing up with a series of substitutions once they led 42-7 late in the third quarter.
McCarty was obviously pleased with the win but was by no means totally satisfied.
“We had a lot of first-game jitters, and we’ve got to get rid of that,” said the first-year PA coach. “We were not great, but I think we’re getting better with each snap. I am disappointed though because we made a lot of mistakes that we put a lot work in at practice to avoid. Hopefully, we can learn from that this week.
“The good news is that we are 1-0 and healthy so we can hit the practice field Monday and keep getting better.”
Pillow had a couple of early penalties that stalled drives and wound being flagged seven times for 60 yards. The Mustangs also had two turnovers — one in the second quarter that led to North Delta’s first touchdown.
The Mustangs kept things pretty basic on offense, never straying from a set of about five plays, but still rolled up 413 total yards on 42 snaps.
Senior Bay Bennett ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries to spark the Mustang ground attack, which finished with 297 yards on 30 attempts.
Senior quarterback Cooper Dunn was quite efficient on just 10 passes, completing seven of those attempts for 107 yards and a touchdown.
On the first play of PA’s second possession, Bennett ripped off a 47-yard scoring jaunt off left tackle on a power play. Then early in the second quarter, Dunn capped a 47-yard touchdown drive with a 1-yard keeper up the middle on a fourth-and-goal play.
The Mustang defense then forced a fourth straight three-and-out by the Green Wave, but a muffed punt by Dillon Ussery gave the visitors new life.
North Delta took over at the PA 37-yard line and nine plays later made it 14-7 with 5:17 left before the half on a 5-yard TD pass from Hays Hudson.
Pillow answered, though, with a 66-yard scoring drive as Ussery hauled in a 10-yard TD pass from Dunn on a bootleg rollout in the back right corner of the end zone — making it 21-7 just before the half. Dunn got the drive going with a 35-yard completion to senior Brantley O’Dell.
Pillow added to its lead on its fourth play of the second half, when Bennett went 50 yards for a touchdown.
Then the defense got in on the scoring when Bennett forced a fumble that found the arms of junior linebacker Will Jennings, who rumbled 40 yards for a touchdown.
PA led 35-7 with 4:18 remaining in the third quarter.
The Mustangs then added their final score of the game less than a minute later. Bennett recovered a fumble to set up a 1-yard scoring run by sophomore John Madison Brooks.
“Our assistant coaches did a heck of a job, making some adjustments and calming our kids down,” McCarty said. “We also got really good crowd support, and that means a lot to our kids and coaches. Everybody is on board with a culture change at Pillow Academy, building support for all of our sports.”
Sophomore backup quarterback Cole Whitfield finished with two carries for 54 yards, and Dunn added 42 yards on eight rushes.
Senior Steve Pannell led PA in receiving with four catches for 71 yards and was 6-for-6 on PAT kicks.
Defensively, O’Dell led the way with seven stops, including two tackles for loss. Senior William Dent Brock had six tackles.
Pillow hosts another Class AA opponent this week in Indianola Academy, which routed Manchester 56-33 on Friday.
