Vancleave dominates district rival, puts itself in driver’s seat for a decade-first
Overlooking the Bulldogs is becoming a fatal and recurring mistake.
Vancleave (4-3, 1-1) romped through Stone (3-4, 1-1) Friday on the road, 37-13, earning its first district win in dominant fashion.
The Bulldogs forced three turnovers and had a 23-point head start before the Tomcats finally dented their end of the scoreboard. Vancleave had its first two touchdowns within Stone’s first seven offensive plays thanks to fumbles on each of the Tomcats’ first two drives.
Hunter Harper and Kyle Capers combined for 150 rushing yards and three scores while Wyatt Adams threw for 110 yards and two more touchdowns.
“We had a great week of practice and they came out and showed a lot of passion and played with a lot of heart,” Vancleave coach Kevin Fant told the Sun Herald after the game.
It’s the fourth win over the last five games for the Bulldogs and the last three have come as the perceived underdog and all on the road.
The Bulldogs stunned a George County team with 6A state title aspirations, punched up and knocked out 7A’s Hancock before traveling to Perkinston and steamrolling the Tomcats and their vaunted defense that has statistically been among the best on the Mississippi Coast.
“That’s what makes this football game so great,” Fant said. “This ain’t like baseball or basketball where you play a series. You got one night and anything can happen... It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a weak or a strong team. Anything can happen if you play hard.”
But it’s not just one night the Bulldogs are are out to steal this season. The attitude persists and carries over week to week.
The secret has been leaving one critical element behind.
“Our momentum ends Sunday,” Fant said. “Enjoy this win, but we got to have a great week of practice. It doesn’t matter if we win or get beat.”
Having an edge helps, too. Vancleave has just one winning season since 2014 and has never won a district championship in the classification era dating back to 1981.
The history leaves the Bulldog program overlooked at times, which is exactly how they like it.
“We want to prove to people that we belong out here, that we can play these good teams,” linebacker Scottie Toothman said. “To prove that we can play with these good teams.”
Bulldog embodiment
There may not be a better representation of the Bulldog mentality than its inside linebacker.
Toothman stands 5-foot-7 and only cracks 160 lbs. with his pads on. From afar he looks like an out of place scat back, but you quickly learn the name after the public address announcer repeats it for four quarters like a broken record.
The senior entered Friday averaging 11.7 tackles per game despite being the smallest player in the defensive box and being outweighed by 100 or more pounds by the offensive linemen in front of him.
“I would pick high school football over college football because you know why? Scottie Toothman,” Fant said. “When you look at him, you’re not going to see size or flat out speed. But you are going to see a desire and a heart and a love for the game that is unmatched. He is a player that you can’t take your eyes off of.”
Nicknamed “ball hawk,” Toothman led a defense that had Stone moving backward for much of the first half. On one possession, the Tomcats lost 24 yards via sack, penalty and two tackles for loss. It ended with Dez Chetman bringing down the Tomcat ball carrier in the end zone for a second quarter safety.
Stone would have two turnovers, a punt and a safety before Ky’lan Burnett’s six-yard touchdown run near the end of the first half.
“To show them different, to show them I can actually do it and I belong out here,” Toothman said of what drives him.
Toothman’s prove-it attitude wears off on his teammates. Vancleave has held its opponent to below their scoring average in each of its four wins and Toothman has had a heavy hand in that through his lead-by-example approach.
“He embodies everything we want in a high school football player,” Fant said. “He’s not a big talker, he just does it with his physicality and what he does, physically.”
Not your older brother’s Bulldogs
Vancleave’s one-back offense looks a bit different this season. The Bulldogs and the forward pass haven’t exactly been synonymous with each other in the past, but Fant hasn’t been afraid to air it this season out now that he has the proper tools.
“This ain’t college where we get to go recruit who we got,” Fant said. “The community sends us what they have and we try to make the best of what we got. It’s a tribute to the players.”
Junior Wyatt Adams has 617 passing yards and six touchdowns through the five games he’s played. He already has the most passing yards in a single season by a Bulldog quarterback since 2020 and — given a playoff game — is on pace to be the first 1,000-yard passer since Christian Kell in 2019.
Adams threw touchdown passes of 29 and three yards to Junior Harris and Daylan Moore in the second quarter against Stone. The scoring tosses made Vancleave’s 30-point first half the most points the Tomcats have given up in a full game this season.
“We opened up the throwing lanes a little bit and starting throwing the ball more and I think that helps a lot in the long run,” Adams said.
The added element has helped alleviate the pressures of the run game and given the two-headed backfield a chance to thrive. Harper has tallied over 700 rushing yards this year and has found the end zone in four of his last five games.
Capers is close to 500 yards and has averaged at least 7.0 yards per carry in three of his last four outings.
Vancleave hopes to maintain its balanced approach and remain in the driver’s seat of it’s first first-round homefield playoff game since 2013.
“We want to put our name out there,” Adams said. “We have the ability to beat these good teams.”
The Bulldogs will play its final home game of the season next Friday when it hosts Laurel.
This story was originally published October 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
