Believe it or not, it’s here. It’s time for some football.

For Lamar School and Starkville Academy, both teams couldn’t have asked for a better game to kick off the season.

The Raiders and Volunteers will meet Friday night at Lamar to begin the 2024 high school football season as one of 19 MAIS Week 0 games.

The last two meetings have come down to the very end and seen Starkville Academy come away with the win. In 2022 the Volunteers stopped the Raiders on two-point conversion in the final seconds to come away with a 24-22 win and last season came away with a 17-14 overtime victory on a 24-yard field goal by Nathan Miller.

“It has been a great game these two years and expecting this one to be no different. It’s a fun entertaining game,” said third-year Lamar School coach Jacob Lamb. “Starkville is always good, well coached, they will play hard and will be excited to play. We’re looking forward to it.”

Offensively, the Raiders will lean on quarterback and Jones College commit Wyatt Bond to lead the offense. Bond tossed for 2,537 yards and 27 touchdowns last season. Ty Wiggins will lead the ground game at running back, while Ty Herrington and Sean Auzenne are back on the outside as solid receivers.

“We got to limit turnovers and execute on offense. Starkville is a very good defensive team and Wyatt has struggled in this game, but now the game has slowed down for him and not to force things,” Land said. “It’s hot and when we get tired in the heat is when we start making mistakes and we have to avoid that. We got a lot of experience back on both sides of the ball so hopefully that will help.”

On defense, Lamar has four of the team’s top six tacklers back from last year in Thomas Bryan, Pace Sparks, Luke Morrow and Cooper Ransier.

“Defensively we’re going to have to play sound and tackle well,” Land said. “Their quarterback is big and athletic, so we’ve got to limit big plays. They’re not going to do much on offense, but what they do they do very effective. It’s always difficult and tough to play them.”

Starkville Academy will be breaking in a new quarterback in Luke McKenzie, who was the team’s top receiver from last year. Luke Johnson will be the feature running back, and Owen Couvillion is the top receiver.

“Lamar is always a tough opponent and playing them right out the game will do nothing but make us better from here on out. Should be a great game and always is,” said Starkville Academy coach Chase Nicholson. “We’re a defensive team, so we got to play great defense, protect the ball on offense, don’t make stupid penalties, and be in the best shape. Luke is ready to go and understands our offense. He’s not going to panic and will make good decisions. I really like Lamar’s quarterback and his ability to run their offense, so it should be a lot of fun.”