STARKVILLE — The playoff drought continues for Pillow Academy.
With MRA blowing out Heritage from the start, the Mustangs had a postseason berth within sight, needing a win against a 3-7 Starkville team that had lost four straight.
It was there for the taking, but the Mustangs did nothing about it as they were shut out 24-0 by the Volunteers here Friday night. The loss ends PA’s season at 4-7 overall, 2-5 in league play and sends Heritage to the playoffs as the No. 2 seed from North AAA Division II.
That means Pillow will be at home for the playoffs for the third straight year.
“It’s very disappointing because we had an opportunity to extend our season, and we didn’t do it,” Pillow head coach Michael Fair said.
The Mustangs have won just seven games since winning a State AAA Division II title in 2010, but Fair is confident things are about to change. PA loses just four seniors and picks up 14 from a talented junior high program.
“I told some juniors after the game that the new season begins right now,” Fair said. “Judging by the reaction of our younger guys, they’re going to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“The future looks bright for these kids, and we’re going to turn this thing around.”
For the second straight week, Pillow’s spread read-option attack was totally shut down as the unit went scoreless in the final six quarters of the 2013 season.
“That’s very disappointing, not scoring like that,” Fair said. “We’ve been hurt by a lot of inconsistency. Obviously, we didn’t block well, but we’ve also had interceptions, dropped balls and a lot of other mistakes.”
The Vols held PA to 85 rushing yards on 32 carries as the Mustangs managed just 146 total yards.
Starkville Academy head coach Jeff Terrill credited their success on defense to good technique.
“I just think our kids flew around well, and we really just played good assignment defense,” Starkville coach Jeff Terrill said. “They did a lot of things on offense with option-type reads and stuff, and our guys were just where they were supposed to be.”
The Pillow offense had its best success on the opening drive of the game before turning the ball over on downs on 13 plays at the Starkville 15-yard line.
Pillow failed to get a first down on its next five first-half possessions and had an interception lead to a 3-0 advantage for the Vols.
Pillow trailed 10-0 at the half.
After a three-and-out by the Mustangs on their second possession of the second half, Starkville had an 8-play, 55-yard touchdown drive to make it 17-0 with 1:30 left in the third.
Senior Maury Sykes led Pillow on the ground with 20 carries for 61 yards, while Steve Pannell led all receivers with 29 yards on three catches.
Defensively, PA gave up a couple of big plays but played pretty well, holding the Vols to 198 total yards.
Sophomore linebacker Will Jennings had a banner game with 24 tackles, including 19 solo stops.
Carter Kimes was next with 17, and Bay Bennett had 16.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
