From the opening kick, the tide of momentum was against the Carroll Academy Rebels.
Kirk recovered the opening kick, grabbing the early momentum and used that to take a 20-8 win over Carroll on Friday night.
Carroll is now 1-1 on the season and will travel to Magnolia Heights on Friday night.
Carroll coach Bo Milton gave plenty of credit to Kirk, who has 20 seniors on the roster.
“You have to tip your hat to Kirk, they were just better,” Milton said. “They made some plays in the first half. No. 2 for them made some good runs and is a good player. There’s not much to say, but they beat us 20-8 and they had a good game plan. They didn’t do anything we weren’t expecting. They played really good defense and got after us. We struggled on offense and never got in a rhythm.”
The game started off on the wrong foot for the Rebels, who were set to receive the opening kick. As the Kirk kicker started to kick off, the whistle blew and Carroll stopped. But the play proceeded and Kirk recovered the ball at the Carroll 31. The Raiders needed six plays to cover the 31 yards, scoring on a 10-yard touchdown pass. The PAT was good and Kirk led 7-0.
“Nothing felt right in the first half,” Milton said. “I thought the whole tone for the game was set on the opening kick. There was a whistle and our kids stopped and the official said he was blowing the whistle to start the game. We thought they were stopping the game. That sort of set the tone and they ended up scoring and it just had a weird feel from there. All I can do is tip your hat to Kirk.”
The Rebels then went nine plays before turning the ball over on downs. Kirk then went 58 yards in three plays and scored on a 32-yard touchdown run to go up 13-0, a score that held throughout the first half.
The Raiders extended the lead to 20-0 early in the third quarter as they went 59 yards in five plays, scoring on a 13-yard touchdown run.
The Rebels finally got on the board in the fourth quarter when Maddox Carpenter hit Lofton Holly on an 18-yard pass play. Carpenter ran in the two-point conversion and Kirk led 20-8.
Carroll had just 90 yards rushing and 66 yards passing for 156 yards of total offense with just seven first downs in the contest.
Maddox Carpenter led the offense with 46 yards rushing on 14 carries while Mathis Beck had 26 yards on five carries. Noah Beck had 49 yards receiving on two catches and a touchdown.
On defense, William Panni had eight tackles to leads the Carroll defense while Mathis Beck had six tackles and Lofton Holly added five stops. Drake Dunn had an interception while Landon Grantham and Mathis Beck each had a fumble recovery.
“I thought our defense was pretty good for the most part,” Milton said. “I thought we were physical on defense and I thought we did some good things. We just didn’t do enough to win the ball game.”
This week’s game
The Rebels will hit the road this week as they travel to Senatobia to take on Magnolia Heights.
The Chieftains are 1-1 on the season with a 13-6 win over Lee and a 35-7 loss to Hartfield.
“They have a similar offense to what we have seen with that super set with three wide receivers and an H-back,” Milton said. “They will have the quarterback counters and are going to throw now that they have another wide receiver. It’s hard to get a feel on them and hard to tell. They have one good running back who runs hard. We have to be physical because they are going to be physical and they always are. We will have a good crowd and our people will be there to support our kids. We will try to get back on track this week but have to play a lot better than we did last week.”
