STARKVILLE — You can wrap this football season in Cardinal and Gold.
In the same stadium where the late Jack Cristil coined his famous victory phrase over the airwaves for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Laurel Golden Tornadoes claimed their perch on top of the Class 5A mountain.
They did it with an opportunistic defense and just enough offense to knock out the Oxford Chargers, ending their winning streak at 12 games and sending them to their second straight state championship loss. The Chargers’ only losses this season were at top-ranked Starkville and against Laurel — in Starkville.
For Laurel (13-2), it marked the third state championship since the Mississippi High School Activities Association began classifying schools by class. Laurel won the Class 4A state championship in 1990 and 2007, and lost in the 2011 championship game to Lafayette County — the county seat of which is Oxford.
“The lights are never too bright for these kids,” said Laurel Schools Superintendent Chuck Benigno, the team’s most ardent cheerleader. “I am so proud of this community. We had a lot more people here than Oxford had. It’s a great show.
“This is a special time — the Decade of the Tornadoes, and we kind of needed this one to keep that momentum going.”
It wasn’t decided until the final seconds.
Clinging to a 29-26 lead with a chance to salt the clock away with a first down in Oxford (13-2) territory, the Tornadoes were forced to punt and Oxford took over at its own 23-yard line with 1 minute, 33 seconds to play.
Oxford drove to the Laurel 23-yard line with 17 seconds to play and no timeouts. Senior defensive back Rickey Holden broke up a pass in the end zone intended for all-everything Oxford receiver DK Metcalf. On the next play, Oxford quarterback Jack Abraham was flushed to his right under intense pressure from Darius Townsend and heaved a desperate pass toward the sideline, but it did not reach the line of scrimmage, resulting in an intentional grounding call and bringing up second-and-37 from the Oxford 36 with 10 seconds to play.
Then Abraham completed a 10-yard pass to Kenneth Presley, who was tackled inbounds by Shemar Keyes, allowing time to expire without Oxford getting another play off as the thousands of Laurel fans on the visiting side and players erupted in celebration.
“It’s crazy right now. Everything is happening so quick, it’s just crazy,” said Laurel junior quarterback Keon Howard, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another, and also completed a late 2-point conversion to Octavious Cooley that had fans oohing and aaahing. Cooley popped the ball up twice to himself before falling into the end zone. “All the thanks goes to the team, without my teammates, we wouldn’t be anything.”
Howard finished 11-of-31 passing for 167 yards and three touchdowns. He connected with Omar Bayless for a first-half touchdown and connected on two scoring passes to Dontario Drummond, the last of which proved to be the deciding points. Drummond caught three passes for 66 yards with scores of 46 yards on the Naders first drive of the game and the final score, a 9-yarder.
Holding a 21-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter, Laurel forced Oxford into a punt, but the snap sailed over the punter’s head and Laurel was in business at the Oxford 12-yard line. On third-and-7 at the 9, Howard rolled right, then threw across his body to the back left corner of the end zone into Drummond’s waiting arms. That gave the Tornadoes a 27-19 lead and the 2-pointer extended the lead to 10.
The 2-point conversion featured one of two Cool- ey catches that played over and over on the humungous video boards at either end of the stadium. The first happened on the Laurel sidelines when Cooley caught the ball one-handed, and dragged a foot inbounds while retaining control with a defender pushing him out of bounds.
If that could be exceeded, it was the 2-point play when Cooley, who finished with four catches for 60 yards, knocked the ball in the air twice before corralling it and falling in the end zone.
“Just an outstanding game by a great football team,” Laurel head coach Todd Breland said. “They came into this season as a team and they ended it as a team. It took a team effort tonight to beat a great Oxford team.”
Laurel began the game with a four-play, 64-yard drive highlighted by a 46- yard TD catch and run by Drummond. Jonathan Atencio booted the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
As Laurel was preparing to kickoff, a Naders assistant coach told Cooley, “Be ready. You’re going back out there.”
And sure enough, Atencio placed a perfect pooch kick that was scooped up by Tornado Landyon Brown at the Oxford 45-yard line.
The Naders did not capitalize, however, when they were stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the Ox- ford 5.
The Chargers marched to their own 42 and were punting, but a Laurel player touched the linedrive punt making it a live ball and Oxford recovered at the Laurel 19. Five players later, Kenzie Phillips scored the first of his two touchdowns. The extra point failed and Laurel held a 7-6 lead with 4:51 to play in the first quarter.
The teams exchanged punts until three minutes into the second quarter when Laurel defensive lineman Sam Lovett intercepted Abraham at the 36 and lumbered 14 yards to the Oxford 22 yard line. That pick set up Howard’s 20-yard scoring strike to Bayless for a 14-6 Naders lead.
“I just did what the coaches taught me,” Lovett said. “I stepped back a bit and read my keys and intercepted the pass. I thought I had the touchdown, but someone caught me from behind. But it’s all good.”
Oxford responded with a drive deep into Laurel territory before Phillips was smashed near the 4-yard line and Keontae Jones recovered the fumble halting the Chargers’ scoring march.
Laurel then marched 96 yards in 15 plays with Howard giving LHS a 21-6 lead on a 4-yard quarterback keeper.
Oxford put together a scoring drive right before the half with Abraham connecting with Zach Cousar on a 16-yard TD pass with 10 seconds to play. The 2-point conversion failed and LHS held a 21-12 halftime lead.
Phillips, who ran for more than 1,800 yards and scored 29 touch- downs this season, was held to 103 yards on 27 carries. His second touchdown, a 3-yarder late in the third quarter got Oxford to 21-19.
The L-Town defense held Oxford to 20 points under its average.
“This feels so good,” Bayless said. “It’s something we’ve been wanting all year. It was the goal from the start and we accomplished our goal.”
Bayless will be graduating and played his last game in a Laurel football uniform,but the bulk of the Naders offense will be returning next year. Hoard, Cooley and running back Dante Robinson are juniors, while Drummond and receiver Tyquan Ulmer are sophomores.
Oxford returns most of its offensive weapons, too, including Abraham, Metcalf and Phillips.
“We came out with our head up knowing that no one could tell us we couldn’t do it,” Cooley said. “We came out and played as a team and you can see the outcome.”
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