Resurrection nabs district win and inches closer to postseason return
Eric Denmark knows what winning football looks like at Resurrection Catholic and has the school returning to those heralded days.
The first-year head coach and longtime Eagle led RCS over Richton on Friday, 38-26, in a key step forward for the program. Resurrection (5-2) is now 2-2 in district play and took down the team that ended the school’s seven-year playoff streak a year ago.
For Denmark, it was another sign of the team’s growth toward finding a way back to the three-year stretch from 2014 to 2016 that saw the Eagles win 33 games.
“It’s getting there,” Denmark said after the win. “We’re running our same offense and our same defense. We’re going three yards and a cloud of dust and we’re going to get after your tail and not quit until the bell rings.”
Resurrection entered the game with two region losses, one a 2-point defeat and the other by 41, sandwiched around a 58-6 win over Salem. The first half of Friday’s game was a microcosm of the up-and-down ride the Eagles have been on in district play.
There were six turnovers between the two sides, with RCS giving it up three times but holding a tight 21-20 lead at halftime.
An athletic roster led by the Pickens brothers and a host of baseball players settled in and outscored the Rebels 16-6 the rest of the way.
“It feels great getting past (Richton) because last year we lost to them on the last play,” quarterback Max Askew said.
Askew is one of several athletes who traded in the glove and bat over the summer for a helmet and pads.
Resurrection’s first score of the game was an Askew pass to Walter Frederic, a connection between two All-South Mississippi baseball stars that helped bring Resurrection its first ever title on the diamond just four months ago.
“The baseball team is the football team,” Denmark said. “Without them, the toughness, the athleticism is not there. And this is all the way from ninth grade to the seniors.”
Askew scored himself on a keeper near the goal line and added another passing touchdown to another spring teammate in Luke Schnoor.
Frederic caught a second touchdown pass in the third quarter, but this one from a different origin. Junior athlete Daniel Pickens received a backward pass and caught Richton by surprise with a perfect lob to Frederic near the end zone.
It was Pickens’ first career passing touchdown and another feather in the cap of an athlete with a receiving score, rushing score, defensive score and punt return score to his name.
Pickens and his brother, DJ, provide RCS a constant advantage on the perimeter with their speed on both sides of the football.
“They’re incredible,” Askew said. “You can stick them anywhere you want on the field and they’ll go make plays.”
Daniel Pickens hauled in his eighth career interception against Richton, giving the Pickens brothers 11 total for the Eagles.
The two roam the defensive secondary together and can be often be found lining up out wide together on offense.
“We’ve been playing with each other in the back yard since we were 5 years old,” Daniel Pickens said. “We’ve got great chemistry, it’s really easy to play with (DJ).”
“DJ, the older one, he’s so valuable at corner,” Denmark said. “They watch out for each other. ... These kids feed off that — if these two brothers can give it all they got, then by God I can, too.”
The Pickens brothers, along with the baseball talent, are the catalysts for an Eagles team hungry to get back to the playoffs.
“We’ve got to keep working hard, listen to our coaches and watch film,” DJ Pickens said.
Resurrection returns to action next week at Mount Olive.
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 11:34 PM.
