Patriots Stay Unbeaten; Knock Off Vols 31-7

It was a far from ordinary Halloween night on Patriot field as both teams played sloppy offensively throughout but the Patriots once again found a way to pull it out again. Coach Brian Sims came back to Patriot field for the first time since leaving and for the first time was wearing a different color then Patriot Red and Blue. He was wearing Orange and looking to salvage his first season at the helm at Starkville. It started out with a stop by the Patriot "D" on three downs. Then the Patriots marched it down the field for nearly 50 yards to the Starkville 5. Thats when the Starkville front took over. They stopped the Patriots on the first 3 plays and then on 4th down at the 3 Tyler Dalton took it off the right side for the touchdown. It would prove to be for naught though as the offense was called for illegal procedure. So Coach Rogers chose to go the field goal route in what would be somewhat of an extra point for Dylan Morgan. But the Big Diesel Jonathan Mackensie got in the backfield and blocked the kick which rolled all the way to the Starkville 30 until Tyler Dalton recovered it. So Starkville took over 1st and 10 but was again stopped on three downs. The Patriots would finally get on the board eventually though right before the end of the first and once again at the beginning of the second quarter. But Starkville answered right back with a strike down the sidelines to their big tight end/wide reciever/defensive end/linebacker etc. etc. and he took it into the endzone to get Starkville on the board and back into the game and at halftime the score was set at Winston 14, Starkville 7. The Patriots would come out though in the second half and play a little better football with the help of Starkville turnovers 4 of them in the second half to be exact(All fumbles as well as 2 more in the first half) Winston would end up getting 3 of those fumbles in the game inside the 10 but only converted that into 10 points. And another fumble was recovered by Stephen Arnett and ran in for 6 points and would prove to be the game changing play because after that Winston would have a 24-7 edge in the ball game. Another T.D. touchdown would end it and the Patriots won their 10th consecutive game and ended the regular season undefeated for the 4th time in school history. The first time since 1997 which was the first of 4 consecutive State championships. Winston also with a win tonight and a loss by AA number 2 Trinity is now the only unbeaten team remaining in the entire MPSA. Now Winston looks on to next week's game the first round of the playoffs against possibly Marshall Academy it is yet to be confirmed by me but as soon as i find out you will be sure to see it. All playoff games will be home for the Patriots so come out and support your team on a possible run to Millsaps College and the State Championship.