Oak Grove’s 2019 season has been full of gut-check moments.
Their opening week of the season featured one where head coach Drew Causey challenged his offensive line and running backs to go seal the win against Wayne County. They conquered that challenge.
Week three came another gut-check moment when the Hattiesburg Tigers jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead against the Warriors and a 28-21 lead at halftime. Oak Grove powered back with 21 points while the defense held the Tigers to six points to capture a 42-34 victory. Yet another challenge conquered.
Oak Grove then lost three-straight games, including two district games to George County and Petal. It was after the Petal game that Causey brought his seniors together to challenge them again.
“Our seniors did a great job of rallying and carrying the weight,” said Causey during the MHSAA State Championship press conference Monday.
Rally they did as they have now won eight-straight games dating back to October 11th where they defeated Meridian 55-6. Since the 21-7 loss to Petal the offense has averaged 426 yards per game, 40.87 points per game and the defense has given up only 18 points per game.
“I told our guys on the way up here that it was neat that the first two times the state championship has been held in Hattiesburg we get to be there, so that is neat for us and the program. We have the shortest drive to the game,” said Causey. I think nobody ranked us when the rankings came out. I don’t think anyone expected us to be here. Our guys fought to be here though. Our backs got against the wall and we came back fighting.”
Last Friday was yet another gut-check moment as they faced off against long-time rival Petal. Both teams went back-and-forth throughout, trading the lead multiple times. Wide receiver Tavion Smith stood out with two touchdowns and 55 yards receiving.
“I’ll say this. Tavion is one guy everyone in America is overlooking. He is 6’4” and 195lbs. He can play slot receiver, outside receiver, and I think he is one guy that I’m shocked who doesn’t have some offers already beside the junior college stuff that he’s got. He’s extremely talented,” said Causey.
Causey said leading up to the game there was not much to say to motivate them. Moving forward, he knows both his team and Oxford picked up wins over long-time rivals, so both are riding a wave of emotion.
Oak Grove head coach Drew Causey celebrates with his daughter after the South State Championship.
“Last week before the game we said, ‘guys we love you and we are proud of you’ because we know what they are capable of. You didn’t have to say a whole lot. We [Oxford] are in the same boat. We played our biggest rival. Oxford played their biggest rival. We were both in a big-time, emotional game. This is the State Championship coming, though. If you’re not nervous something’s wrong. If you weren’t nervous last week, something’s wrong. I don’t know if I slept any last week and I haven’t got into bed before 2 a.m. yet because I can’t go to sleep. Everyone’s going to be a little nervous and maybe a little emotional about the whole thing. I think it is going to be who handles that part the best. They’ll have a little bit of an advantage early. We have a lot of kids that played in this game last year, so they know what to expect this week. They know what our schedule is going to be and that helps us a bit.”
Oxford will make the four hour and two-minute trip to M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg with a 13-1 record and a 12 game win streak on the line.
The Chargers have averaged 25 points per game over their last eight games while giving up just seven per game.
“They are a very good football team. Their quarterback is a heck of a player. Their offensive line does a great job of blocking. When they give the ball to number five [JJ Pegues], their big guy, he’s tough to bring down. They put him everywhere on the field. They’ve put him at quarterback, slot receiver, outside receiver, tight end, and running back. He’s 6’4”, 280lbs, so he’s a challenge. Their quarterback does a good job running the ball too. So they are tough to handle on that side. Defensively, they do a great job. They are not overly complicated but they do what they do very well. They’re kind of like us in a lot of ways. We are going to line up and play football and they are too. I think it’ll be fun and we look forward to the challenge,” explained Causey.
Oak Grove is known for throwing the football around, however, part of that is having good offensive line play led by seniors like a standout in Trenton Jackson who was selected to the 2019 MS/AL All-Star game.
“We’ve been very lucky to have our line this year play exceptional. You’ve got two seniors in Trenton Jackson and Caleb Fortenberry, two juniors Donovan Allen and Taurese Sibley, along with one sophomore Klabron Pollard who rounds out our line. They’ve been exceptional. We’ve been able to figure out whether it is at the start of the game, end of the first quarter, halftime, or near the end of the game what run play we like, what we can get to, and what we are executing best. Our guys have done a great job of coming to the sideline letting us know what they can run, what they are picking up on, and it has been a full team effort. I think they’ve gotten stronger in the second half of ball games.
Oak Grove and Oxford are set for a 7 p.m. kick-off this Friday night at M.M. Roberts Stadium, home of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Prediction: Oak Grove 31, Oxford 24
