‘It hurts bad.’ Louisville rallies in final moments to end Poplarville’s title bid
The Poplarville football team has come up short in the Class 4A state title game in four of the last five seasons, but no defeat was more painful than Saturday’s 15-14 loss to Louisville at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Louisville junior quarterback Jace Hudspeth hit junior receiver Jarvis Rush on a 24-yard touchdown pass with 36 seconds remaining on a well-placed pass into the left corner of the end zone to cut Poplarville’s lead to 14-13.
After Louisville coach Tyrone Shorter didn’t hesitate to go for the two-point conversion, it appeared briefly that the Poplarville defense had come up with one last stop for the win, but Louisville sophomore running back Jaden Triplett found his way in the end zone for the 15-14 lead.
Triplett worked through one tackle, put a hand in the ground and barely made it across the goal line.
“Our offense showed a lot of guts to go for two,” Shorter said after his team earned Louisville’s 10th state title. “Sometimes as a coach you just feel it. Our offense was rolling so I wanted to keep them on the field and we got the job done.”
Louisville’s game-winning drive went 82 yards on 13 plays and lasted 5:52. The Wildcats converted a pair of fourth downs on the drive.
It was a heartbreaking finish for a Poplarville defense that was the main reason that the team still had a good shot at a victory late in the fourth quarter.
“It sucks it came down to one tackle,” Poplarville junior defensive end/linebacker Khalid Moore said. “It slipped right from our hands. It hurts … It hurts bad.”
Louisville was held to 60 yards rushing on 29 carries, forcing the Wildcats to rely almost exclusively on Hudspeth and his talented receivers. Hudspeth, who was named the game’s MVP, completed 24 of 40 passes for 273 and a touchdown.
“The defense played great,” Poplarville coach Jay Beech said. “We made them stay on the field too long. They held as long as they could, gave up a play at the end. That wasn’t the defense. It was our offense that couldn’t put together drives in the second half.”
The Poplarville offense got off to a promising start when a 1-yard touchdown run by sophomore Avon Jarvis capped a 15-play, 82-yard drive to start the game.
Louisville tied the game at 7-7 on the first play of the second quarter on a 1-yard run by Hudspeth.
Poplarville had a quick answer when senior Greg Swann ran 62 yards for the touchdown to put the Hornets up 14-7 with 10:35 left in the first half.
The offense dried up from there on out. Poplarville (10-4) managed to push the ball to the Louisville 18 on its final possession of the game, but the Hornets turned it over on downs when they failed to convert a 4th-and-5.
Poplarville got the ball back with 32 seconds left, but Louisville (14-1) came up with an interception to close out the victory.
Many of the Poplarville players were inconsolable after the game as the reality of the defeat sank in quickly.
Of the four losses the program has experienced in the last five years, the one on Saturday had to be the most difficult to accept.
Moore was one of the more stoic Poplarville players as he left the field, but he couldn’t hide his emotions when talk turned to the senior class.
“On that field out there, they gave it their all and they taught me to give it my all and that’s exactly what I did. It sucks they have to lose their state championship by one point. It hurts, man,” Moore said as he began to fight back tears.
A year after showing his frustration following a 55-21 loss to Corinth in the 4A title game in Hattiesburg, Beech was at a loss for words as his team again came up one game shy of the school’s first state title.
“Ain’t nothing you can say to those guys that’s going to make them feel any better,” he said. “It sucks and that’s all there is to it.”
Junior Tyron Holston led Poplarville in rushing with eight carries for 111 yards. Swann added 10 carries for 92 yard and a touchdown.
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 3:05 PM.
