As Sumrall prepares for Forrest County AHS Friday night, there’s a little bit of déjà vu with the football program. For the second straight season, the Bobcats (5-4, 1-2 in Region 7-4A) will face the Aggies (5-4, 1-2) with a playoff berth on the line.
“They’re 5-4 like us, and I’m sure they feel like they should have a few more wins like we do,” Sumrall coach Shannon White said. “They have a good team, and (head) coach (Jeff) Stockstill has come in there and got them going.”
Both teams are coming off losses to two of the better teams in the region, as Greene County dropped FCAHS 28-7 and the Bobcats fell to undefeated Poplarville 46-0.
When this situation came last season, the Aggies traveled to Sumrall and won 27-18, then lost to Greene County, which was trying to sneak into the playoffs then instead of its dominant self this season, 63-41. White said his team knows how important Friday night’s game is for his program.
“We talked about it,” White said. “We want them to know what the scenarios are. We want them to be educated on this game, the last game and what lies ahead of us.”
Forrest County will be the third straight run-heavy team Sumrall will face, as its wing-T offense has run the ball 383 times compared to just 49 passing attempts. Senior Nathan Whitley leads the offense with 569 yards and four touchdowns on 94 carries, and senior Cornelius Smith has a team-high 115 carries for 438 yards and two touchdowns.
Sophomore Devonte Dixon has added 90 rushing attempts and 494 yards with a pair of scores, and sophomore quarterback Evan Clark has four rushing touchdowns to along with his four passing scores with only 15 total pass completions on the season.
“It’s another wing-T team, and we’ve struggled against wing-T teams before, so it’s still a challenge for us,” White said.
Defensively, similar to Sumrall, the Aggies have allowed some points, but White believes they’re a good defense. Teams are scoring 20 points a game on Forrest County and it has given up 30 points to region teams.
FCAHS plays a similar defense as Poplarville, which is a 5-2 alignment and man coverage.
“I think the competition has a lot to do with that,” White said. “I mean, I think we have a good defense, but we gave up 35 to Purvis and 40-something to Poplarville. I don’t think we have a bad defense necessarily, so I think statistics can be a little misleading. I think they have one of the scrappiest defense we’ve seen all year. Those guys play really hard, but they’re not very big. It’s amazing how they get so many people to the ball.”
The Bobcats will attempt to bounce back from a 115-yard performance on offense. Junior Billy Garrity was 8-for-23 with 59 yards and the run game averaged 3.5 yards per carry with 56 yards on 16 attempts.
Junior four-star receiver Dannis Jackson didn’t record a catch in the contest either. That was the first time, when he’s actually played receiver, Jackson hadn’t caught a pass since Sumrall played Poplarville last season.
White said it was simply because of the offense not being able to complete a pass to him because Garrity threw it Jackson’s way 12 or 13 times.
“They played man coverage,” White said. “The guy covered him. It is what it is.”
