‘The beauty of high school football.’ Ocean Springs continues to overcome the odds.
An Ocean Springs High School football team that few gave a shot to make a run at the playoffs early in the season is on the brink of a postseason bid.
The Greyhounds (5-4, 4-1) trounced rival St. Martin 26-2 Thursday night at Greyhound Stadium behind another strong defensive showing and a grind-it-out performance on offense.
Ocean Springs has overcome multiple injuries in recent weeks to win three straight headed into a crucial Nov. 1 road trip to Gulfport.
Players who began the season down the Ocean Springs depth chart are stepping up their play as the season enters crunch time, and no Greyhound better exemplifies that effort than senior running back Jakari Smith. After carrying the ball 29 times for 92 yards and two touchdowns through the first four games, he has 89 carries for 417 yards and five touchdowns over the last five games.
With the Greyhounds missing two of their top backs due to injury, Smith took nearly every handoff Friday until the game was well in hand late in the fourth quarter.
“I can’t express to you how much I love that kid,” Ocean Springs coach Ryan Ross said. “He’s a warrior for our football team. That’s just the beauty of high school football. You find someone like that not only leads by example, but also gets out there and leads on the field. He’s a great asset to our football team and our young people coming up behind him.”
Smith finished Friday’s game with 16 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns, giving him back-to-back 100-yard performances.
He again did most of his damage right up the middle, pounding his way through the St. Martin defense.
“I’m just pushing myself,” Smith said. “I have to take (the handoff) as much as I can so I enjoy it.”
Ocean Springs senior quarterback Blake Noblin also earned some tough yardage between the tackles, running 11 times for 94 yards and one touchdown. He completed five of his nine passes for 82 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown to senior receiver Demetrious Jones for the first score of the game to make it 7-0 at with 3:34 left in the first quarter.
“Blake is a machine, for real,” Smith said. “He always makes the perfect reads.”
The Yellow Jackets threatened to cut into the 14-0 halftime lead when they pushed to the Ocean Springs 1 on their first possession of the third quarter, helped by a pair of red zone penalties on the Greyhounds. On fourth-and-goal just inside the Ocean Springs 2, the Greyhound defense surged forward to stop St. Martin senior running back Jay McGee shy of the goal line.
“It was just keeping our heads up,” Ocean Springs senior defensive back Dylan Williams said. “We always say, ‘Reset.’ That’s what we say on defense on every play if something big happens. We just say, ‘Reset,’ to keep our minds clear.
In that moment, Ross saw in his defense what he’s seen from the group throughout region play.
“(Defensive coordinator Doug Lucas) does a lot of work to give them the simplest game plan our guys can hopefully execute,” Ross said. “That’s what it’s all about. It’s trusting what the coaches say. We’re not trying to do too much. They’re not supposed to do more than they’re supposed to. It’s just trusting the plan and doing a lot of film study, being very mature with what we’re giving them on the field.”
St. Martin picked up a safety when Smith was hit in the end zone following the stop at the 1, but that was all the points the Yellow Jackets could manage.
“There was a lot of talk leading up to this game,” Williams said. “We don’t really pay attention to all that. We try to come out here and do what we do. You see the scoreboard.”
St. Martin sits at 6-3 overall and 2-3 in region competition after having its playoff chances take a significant hit on the road. The Yellow Jackets close out the regular season with a trip to West Harrison and a home game against D’Iberville.
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 11:26 PM.
