By Daniel Rigdon / Sports Writer
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Week No. 3 of the MHSAA high school football season pits two old rivals matching up as the Starkville High Yellow Jackets make a stop by Ray Stadium to take on the No. 2 ranked Meridian High Wildcats tonight.
The 'Cats roll into the contest having come off a 26-6 drumming of Wayne County, while Starkville enters on the heels of pounding Louisville 34-0.
The defenses of both teams have been solid so far this year as the Yellow Jackets have allowed only 14 points in two contest, while Meridian (2-0) has given up just 13. SHS held Louisville to 102 total yards offense and the Wildcats gave up 95 to the War Eagles.
Starkville (1-1) rushed for 338 yards against Louisville last week. The Yellow Jackets are led by quarterback Jaquez Johnson, who tallied 136 yards on 12 carries and also threw for a touchdown against the Wildcats.
Starkville is led by first-year coach Jamie Mitchell. He previously was the head coach at Itawamba AHS. Mitchell knows just how tough Meridian is and hopes to limit and not stop what the Wildcats are going to try to do.
"Meridian is definitely deserving of their ranking," said Mitchell. "They are blessed with tons of talent on both sides of the ball. They have some electrifying players in that backfield. I don't think there is any stopping those guys you can only try to limit their plays and not give up the big play. That quarterback (Antionne Adkins) is one of the most electrifying players to watch in the state. We just have to hope to limit them and hit a few plays here and there."
However, MHS is preparing the same as it does every week according to coach Larry Weems.
"We're not doing anything special," said Weems. "Nothing different than we do for every team we prepare for."
Meridian will be looking to quarterbacks Adkins and Luke Stanley to lead the offensive charge as well as the backfield combination of Kenya Roberts and Michael Hubbard. Stanley and Hubbard both saw limited action in last week's win against Wayne County, but that is something Weems hopes to rectify tonight.
"We need to get Luke in at quarterback earlier in the game," said Weems. "We are gonna need him as the year goes on and we need to keep from Antionne taking all the hits. It’s a long season and we need to stay healthy this early.
"We need to get Michael in the backfield more. We've been using Michael as more of an all-purpose guy. What we are going to need to do is just get him (Hubbard) in the backfield and let him and Kenya be our best bet."
Roberts was just that last week as he carried the ball 28 times for 93 yards and four touchdowns against Wayne.
Although Weems will lean heavily on that group to lead he knows he will need others to step up and make plays.
"You try to get your best 11 on the field," added Weems. "Our recievers have to step up, but they're young and haven't quite developed yet. We're not quite where we need to be at but we're getting there."
