By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Madison-Ridgeland Academy head coach Herbert Davis hired a new defensive coordinator this season after Danny White took a job at Christ Covenant School.
The new hire earned his pay in the second half Friday night in the first meeting between the MAIS Big 4 this season.
The new DC – Davis hired himself and moved from coaching offense to defense — and his defensive unit held Hartfield Academy scoreless and held the Hawks to only 20 total yards in the final two quarters as MRA rolled to a 42-21 victory before an estimated 3,000 at MRA’s Patriot Field.
MRA – ranked No. 4 in MAIS Class 4A and No. 15 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – improved to 2-1 and won its second straight game and defeated Hartfield for the second straight season. Hartfield – ranked No. 3 in MAIS Class 4A and No. 13 in Mississippi – dropped to 2-1.
When White left for Christ Covenant, Davis decided to move over to the defense of the first time in his 13-year coaching career at MRA. Don’t think though that Davis doesn’t know defense. In fact, he was always on the defensive side of the ball during his first 17 seasons as a head coach at Pillow Academy, Brookhaven Academy, Heritage Academy, Winston Academy and Lawrence County.
“We played pretty good defense in the first half, but gave us some plays, but we had some adjustments at halftime and did a better job and got off the field on their down,” said Davis, who won his 257th career game, 123 at MRA. “Our kids played hard. Our defensive front did a good job. We have nine new starters on defense. (Senior defensive back) Ty Childress and (junior defensive back) Daniel Perkins are the only true starters back on defense. We have two more (senior defensive lineman Cade Cox and junior defensive back Drayden Martin-Young) who started before they were injured last year against Hartfield. We showed a lot of passion and played with a lot of effort and matured a little bit.”
Hartfield senior quarterback Ethan Elliott – one of the fastest players in the MAIS who has been timed in 4.39 seconds in 40-yard dash – scored three touchdowns on runs of 57, 38 and 9 yards in the first half and Hartfield led 21-20 before MRA senior quarterback Austin Banks completed a 14-yard TD pass to senior wide receiver Holt Adams with 9 seconds before halftime for a 27-21 lead.
But MRA’s defense stiffened and allowed no points in the second half and kept Elliott from breaking big runs. Elliott had six carries for 107 yards at halftime and finished with eight carries for 94 yards.
“We knew the quarterback was really good and can hurt you with his arm and feet and we weren’t disciplined the first few drives of the first half, but our coaches made great halftime adjustments and we shut them in the second half,” said Childress, who had five tackles. “We had a great week of practice and our defense and offense played well. We’re only going to get better from here on as we come together with many new faces playing on offense and defense. When you play a quarterback that is explosive, it’s about playing discipline defense, and doing your job every play. As a senior, I’m extremely proud of how we have grown as a defensive unit and come together in the third week of the season. This is the ultimate team sport and it’s going to take everyone that’s in the game to contribute and play assignment football.”
“Coach Davis sat us down at halftime and we came up with a game plan to contain the quarterback,” said MRA senior linebacker and St. Andrew’s transfer Pierce Ingram, who had a team-high nine tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and one sack. “Our defensive line made a great adjustment in the second half and did very good containing. Our safeties and corners also did a great job with two interceptions in the second half. We also had great energy throughout the game and turned it up a notch in the second half. Our offense was also electric, which gave our defense all the energy we needed.”
While MRA’s defense was slowing down Hartfield’s offense, MRA’s offense kept scoring and had 15 points in the second half on a 58-yard TD pass from Banks to Adams and 63-yard TD from Banks to senior wide receiver Jack Dalton.
Banks completed 17 of 25 passes for 328 yards and five TDs. Dalton caught eight passes for a career-high 201 yards and Adams caught six passes for 102 yards and two TDs. It was Dalton’s third straight game with more than 100 yards receiving. He came in ranked fourth in Mississippi with 259 yards in two games, according to MaxPreps. Dalton – whose brother Davis was the Metro Jackson Player of the Year as a senior at MRA in 2021 and now plays wide receiver at Southern Miss – has 660 yards and five TDs this season. Davis has the school record with 1,586 yards and 15 TDs in a season and has the Mississippi record with 388 yards in one game.
“We won last night because we trusted in our game plan and trusted when the coaches made adjustments in the second half, especially on defense,” Jack Dalton said. “It meant a lot to win that game because no one outside of MRA thought we were going to win, which motivated us to work as hard as we could to prove everyone wrong.”
In addition to the passing game, MRA senior running back Colson O’Cain – in his first action since injuring his ankle in the first half in the season opener two week ago at Ravenwood, Tenn., – had 169 yards on 26 carries and one TD.
Hartfield was coming into Friday with a lot of momentum after wins MAIS Class 3A Washington School (41-13) and defending MHSAA Class 4A state champion Columbia High (42-28). The Hawks appeared to be on their way to their third straight 40-point game until MRA slowed them down in the second half.
“Ethan Elliott played well,” Hartfield coach Craig Bowman said. “That is pretty obvious to anyone that watched. The difference was that MRA outplayed us in the second half. We have a bye week this week before our next district game. We have to get better. Our schedule is really tough and our players have to come ready to play four quarters, not just two.”
