The scoreboard wasn’t what Meridian head coach John Douglass would’ve liked. The effort in the second half at least did the job of setting the tone.

After opening the season with wins of 35-14 against Philadelphia and 49-21 at Northeast Lauderdale, the Wildcats traveled to West Lauderdale Sept. 10 and found themselves trailing 30-12 at the half. Instead of letting his players get too down, Douglass told them to try to cut into the Knights’ lead gradually.

“We challenged them at halftime, ‘Don’t quit, let’s go out there and score a touchdown and make it 30-18 or 20 depending on what happens with the point after and take it one series at a time,’” Douglass recalled. “We challenged them to come out, play hard and fight, and they did. I think we learned a lot about ourselves that night.”

West Lauderdale eventually came out on top 45-42, but after making a run in the second half, the Meridian players left the game feeling good about their chances no matter the opponent. The momentum carried over into last week when the Wildcats shook off a sluggish first half to beat Hattiesburg on the road 41-35. 

“We talk a lot about growing each week and being a little bit better, and even in the loss to West Lauderdale – which is obviously a very good football team — I felt like we grew as a team,” Douglass said. “It showed we would continue to fight, and we were in another close game last week with Hattiesburg and continued to respond. We got a turnover when we needed it and moved the ball and put points on the board when we had to.”

Meridian (3-1) returns home this week to face Northwest Rankin, and sophomore receiver Daniel Hill said there’s more confidence this year than there has been the past couple of seasons.

“We have more weapons, and we feel like any game we can compete in, we can win,” Hill said.

Junior receiver Quindarrius Jones, who caught two touchdown passes last week for Meridian, said the tale-of-two-halves cliché perfectly described the West Lauderdale game and illustrated to the Wildcat players why it was important to stay confident even when you’re trailing.

“Everyone felt down going back in the locker room, but you can’t quit,” Jones said. “That’s not really an option. We realized we could play way better after that second half.”

Part of the early success has been due to Meridian’s ability to put up points, and the Wildcats have no shortage of playmakers. Hill, Jones, senior athlete Jonathan Vaughn, junior running back Elijah Brown and juniors Fernando and Howard Atterberry are all dependable to gain big yards on any one play, and opposing teams can’t simply focus their defensive efforts on keeping one or two guys in check.

“I’ve been on staffs and been a head coach where we had one guy with a place on the play sheet to where I knew we were getting the ball in this kid’s hands,” Douglass said. “When you have so many options, at that point if we run the jet sweep, it doesn’t matter if it’s Daniel carrying it or Jonathan carrying it or a couple of other kids as well. If we’re throwing the fade, they’re all capable of going up and getting the football. Three or four of those guys are going to be involved on some level with almost everything we do, so hopefully at the end of the day it works out to where we’re spreading it around fairly equally.”

Having so many good athletes also helps take pressure off each one of them, Jones said.

“It helps us move the ball around more and do what we want to do on offense instead of letting the other team dictate (what we do),” Jones said.

Hill said there’s more to the early success than talent, though.

“Coming to practice, putting in a lot of work and staying focused,” Hill said were the keys to the 3-1 start.

Northwest Rankin enters Friday’s game with an 0-3 record, but the losses have come to Ridgeland, Clinton and Madison Central, teams with a combined 7-3 record.

“They lost a few guys from last year, some of their bigger pieces, but I think they’ll be solid competition,” Hill said after watching film on the Cougars.

Weekly improvement will be the main key for sustained success, Douglass said, but he’s pleased with the results so far and hopes his players can remain healthy through the rest of the fall.

“I’m proud of how our team is responding,” Douglass said. “We need to continue to improve, and if we can stay away from injuries, we’ll see where this goes.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday at Meridian.