The matchup for the state championship in Mississippi’s largest classification has been set. It features a team that has been one of the favorites to come out of the north half all season, and a team in the south that wasn’t picked by many – if any – to make it this far.
The Horn Lake Eagles will make the long trip from the Memphis suburbs to the Hub City to face off against Hattiesburg’s own Oak Grove Warriors. The Warriors are tabbed as the visiting team, occupying the east side of the stadium, but there’s no doubt Oak Grove will have the home-field advantage.
M.M. Roberts Stadium is six short miles from Oak Grove High School, and it’s a field some of the Oak Grove players have played on, too. As little leaguers, players like John Rhys Plumlee, Jarius Smith, Jarius Reimonenq, Nick Milsap, Kaleb Carter and many more were part of a dominant youth football team that lost only three games during a five-year span. Many of those years ended with a state championship at The Rock.
“That’s crazy and it’s a blessing, honestly,” Reimonenq, a senior defensive back for the Warriors, said. “It's really a home game and we get to play in front of our home crowd where we grew up. We’ve won multiple state championships there in little league football, so we’ve played there before. It’s going to be a great experience.”
Horn Lake coach Brad Boyette doesn’t mind having to take a four-plus-hour road trip to play Oak Grove in its hometown. He’s just happy to be there.
“That decision to play that game was made a long time ago,” Boyette said. “Playing in a state championship, I’m not going to complain about where the games are played. I’d load the team up in a space shuttle and play it on the moon if that’s where we wanted to play it.”
Both teams passed major tests on their road to The Rock. The Eagles took down Warren Central, Starkville and Madison Central, while the Warriors cleared Harrison Central, Petal and Brandon. Horn Lake has beaten every team but one by double digits, with the exception coming last week to Madison Central. Horn Lake scored 19 fourth-quarter points last Friday, too. Oak Grove has losses from Hattiesburg and Brandon, but it’s healthy and peaking at the right time.
The matchup also features some big-name recruits. Horn Lake senior linebacker Nakobe Dean is the state’s No. 1 recruit, according to Rivals.com, and senior quarterback Raydarious Jones, who’s listed as an ‘athlete’, comes in as 16th. Oak Grove’s Plumlee was tabbed 18th while Harris is 30th and Reimonenq checks in at 39th in the state’s Top 50.
Boyette is really impressed with the Oak Grove senior quarterback, and for good reason. Plumlee has accounted for 3,871 offensive yards and 48 total touchdowns. He leads the team with 1,407 rushing yards and 19 scores while also passing for 2,464 yards 29 touchdowns and only two interceptions.
“He’s maybe the best I’ve ever seen on film and the best I’ve ever prepared for,” Boyette said. “He has a tremendous will to win. Athletically, maybe he’s the fastest quarterback we’ve ever played against in a long time, maybe ever.”
Plumlee will match up with a stout Horn Lake defense that only allows opponents to score 10 points per game. The Eagles have held 10 of their 14 opponents to 10 points or less, and only Southaven was able to score at least 20 points, but it was a 52-21 losing effort.
The highly-recruited Dean, who has 127 total tackles, 20 tackles for a loss, seven sacks and three interceptions, leads the Eagles on defense.
“I think you just have to know where he is,” Causey said. “He’s probably the best linebacker in the state for a reason. He’s very talented. If we can make sure we know where he’s at, at all times and make sure we have somebody to account for him, hopefully, we can get him blocked.”
The Horn Lake offense features a dual-threat quarterback, too. Raydarius Jones has 1,496 passing yards and 1,075 rushing yards with total 27 touchdowns, while senior running back Patrick Gilliam adds 1,058 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns to the offense. Senior Octavious Williams leads the offense with 693 receiving yards and six scores, but no other receiver has more than 300 yards.
“(Jones) takes care of the football,” Causey said. “They’re similar to us in a lot of ways with what we both run. It’ll be two good quarterbacks going at it, and defensively they’re extremely talented.”
Boyette is really impressed with the Oak Grove defense, too. He listed Harris and senior defensive lineman Austin Todd as imposing figures on the Warriors’ defensive front, then he complimented the Warriors by saying how multiple they are on defense.
“We haven’t played a team all year that’s so multiple and give this many looks,” Boyette said. “That’s a testament to their coaching staff and their players with how they’re coached and how well they adapt to coaching. An offense goes to the line of scrimmage, looks at the defense and makes a decision. That’s going to be a challenge. It’s the state championship, it’s supposed to be challenging. It’s everything and more than we expected.”
