J.Z. George head coach Ben Burton summed up last Friday's 19-14 loss to Okolona High School rather quickly.
"It's not that they were better than we are, but we left 28 points on the field because of our mistakes, and those are things that can be corrected in practice," said Burton, whose Jaguars visit Noxapater High School Friday at 7 p.m.
"I know we have improved from last year. It wasn't 48-0 this time around. Take away a couple of plays and some fumbles in the red zone and we come out on top in this game. We were at the 10 and fumbled and got to their 6-yard line and fumbled. It was all us, not them," Burton added. "We watched film on Monday and saw a lot of positives. We're going to build on that performance and get better.
"The effort was good. Our kids battled to the very end. The effort they gave was encouraging to the coaches because they took what they learned in practice and did a lot of good things."
The Jaguars had to break in a new quarterback since fall practices began. Malik Christian moved from receiver to quarterback at the start of last week as he was taking the place of Montavis Jenkins, who suffered a right knee injury in a scrimmage game against Eupora High School on Aug. 10.
Jenkins had an MRI last Friday and Burton was waiting for word on the outcome of the test.
Christian played quarterback for the Jaguars as a sophomore in 2016. He threw the ball a good bit in their offensive scheme that season, but the plan this season has been to run the football, especially if the 225-pound Jenkins was healthy.
"The more reps that Malik gets in practice, the more familiar he's going to be with the offense," the 5th-year head coach said. "We're running things slightly different from when he played quarterback two years ago. He didn't run the ball as much that season.
"Our offensive line did a good job against Okolona. We had 309 total yards, and it could have been more if we eliminate some mistakes."
Christian, a 6-foot-1 senior, had 19 carries for 164 yards, two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion to account for all 14 of the Jaguars' points. He also threw for 32 yards and caught one pass for eight yards.
Devontae Smith, a senior running back, had 39 yards on nine rushes, and sophomore Jacob Johnson picked up 42 yards on nine carries. Junior Malik Branch had 28 yards on two tries.
Senior Chris Rias, who had two receptions for 32 yards, led the defense with 13 tackles and a quarterback sack. Junior Keyshawn Daniels was credited with 8.5 tackles, and junior tackle Cory Clay had 4.5 tackles.
Noxapater opened its season with a 14-7 loss to St. Andrew's.
"They are going to be good up front on both sides of the ball," said Burton, whose 2017 squad lost 33-6 to Noxapater. "I know we are in for a tough game, but we must prepare mentally and physically."
