By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Madison-Ridgeland Academy junior quarterback Samuel Stockett wasn’t feeling well before Friday night’s game with Oak Grove High. He had stomach issues and was throwing up minutes before kickoff.
By the end of the first half, it was Oak Grove coach Drew Causey and his Oak Grove players who weren’t feeling well. And the Warriors left Madison headed back an hour and a half down Highway 49 to Hattiesburg with a sour taste in their mouths.
Stockett passed for 351 yards and five touchdowns in an offensive clinic in the first half and finished with 433 passing yards and six TDs as MAIS Class 6A MRA surprised defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Oak Grove 51-13 before an estimated 4,000 at MRA’s Patriot Field.
MRA improved to 5-1, with its only loss to Arkansas Class 7A public school power Pulaski Academy. Oak Grove dropped to 2-2 and lost its second straight game after losing to crosstown rival and MHSAA Class 6A Hattiesburg last week.
Oak Grove came into the game ranked No. 5 and MRA No. 13 in Mississippi in the MaxPreps rankings.
MRA scored more than 50 points for the fourth time in six games this season. It was the most points allowed by Oak Grove since a South Panola 56-14 win in the 2009 Class 6A state championship game.
MRA has less than a quarter of the students in grades 9-12 as Oak Grove (about 400 students to about 1,800 students), but Friday night it was the Patriots who was the dominating team.
Stockett completed 20 of 27 passes for 351 yards and threw TD passes to junior Case Thomas (17 yards), senior Jake McMillan (52 yards), senior DJ Watkins (14 yards), junior Michael McCrory (21 yards) and junior Will Bizot (27 yards) in the first half display as he carved up Oak Grove’s defense. Then, Stockett connected with Watkins for an 83-yard TD pass in the first minute of the third quarter for a 48-13 lead, which started a running clock for the rest of the game.
Stockett completed 22 of 30 passes, 73.3 percent, with six TDs for the game. Eight incompletions, six TD passes. No interceptions. Pretty remarkable performance.
Not bad for a guy who was throwing up minutes before kickoff.
“I threw up twice on the field (warming up) and had some issues in the locker room,” Stockett said. “I took a pill and some Liquid IV, but threw it up immediately afterwards, but adrenaline and excitement got me through the game. I drank Gatorade during the game. (MRA) Coach (Herbert) Davis put in a great game plan, and we knew they were running man free about every snap. We just trusted our wide receivers to get open. The big question before the night was could we block their SEC defensive lineman (6-foot-4, 280-pound senior and Ole Miss commitment Andrew Maddox). Our offensive line proved that. They gave me time, which is what our game plan depended upon.”
MRA’s offensive line of 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior tackle Sebastian Griffin, 6-2, 280-pound sophomore tackle Cale Unger, 6-3, 305-pound sophomore guard and Richland transfer Clay Lawson, 6-3, 300-pound senior guard and Yazoo County transfer Kailand Stewart and 6-foot, 215-pound senior center Blayne Williams neutralized Maddox, who is rated the No. 13 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports, and his defensive line teammates.
“Our kids played hard, and they executed,” MRA offensive line coach Kenny Williams said. “We challenged them. We told them this was going to be a very physical game and our guys answered the bell. I was very proud of them.”
“We really united as one and played together,” Griffin said. “We had belief that we were more physical and tougher than they were. We’ve been doubted up front all year and this game we really clicked as a team. We gave the quarterback time, and the receivers did an amazing job to get open and makes plays all night long.”
Stockett had plenty of time to throw and stayed clean most of the game against the Oak Grove defense, which had six starters back from last year’s 13-1 and state championship team. In addition to Maddox, Oak Grove had two more talented Division I players, senior linebacker and Southern Miss commitment Malachi Henderson and senior linebacker and Jackson State commitment Jaylan Moore.
This is Stockett’s first year to start after being the backup to John White, now a freshman at Southern Miss. White set a Mississippi career passing record with 15,529 yards in his five-year high school career, three at MRA and two at Winona Christian. He also threw for 177 career TDs, second all-time in Mississippi history. White passed for 3,557 yards and 42 touchdowns last year as a senior.
Stockett has now completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,700 yards and 21 TDs with only four interceptions this season.
“We really played well, especially the offensive line,” Davis said. “It was our best game yet. We only had one sack all night. We put it together and everyone executed. We knew we would have opportunities and would have good matchups. Our receivers got open and Stockett got the ball to them. And our defense played great. Hats off to our players. We needed a win like that for our confidence.”
Davis – a Brookhaven Academy, Co-Lin CC, and Mississippi College (bachelor’s degree) and Delta State (master’s degree) graduate – has won 242 games and six state championships (three at MRA, two at Brookhaven Academy and one at Pillow Academy) in his 28th season as a head coach. He is the only football coach in Mississippi history to take five schools (MRA, Brookhaven Academy, Pillow Academy, Heritage Academy and Winston Academy) to state championship games.
Davis has won 108 games in 11 seasons at MRA.
MRA finished with 498 total yards compared to Oak Grove’s 188 yards, which included negative six rushing yards.
MRA’s Watkins – a senior and Arkansas State commitment who played at Jackson Academy last season – caught six passes for 143 yards and two TDs and ran 10 times for 29 yards and one TD.
MRA’s defense – which had six returning starters from last year’s 8-4 team and 6A state semifinalist – limited Oak Grove to only one TD (a 13-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Kellen Hall to senior wide receiver AJ Lewis in the first quarter) – and two field goals of 42 and 30 yards by Cooper Miller.
Oak Grove had only eight first downs, was 1 for 10 on third down conversions and 0 for 2 on fourth down conversions. Hall completed 12 of 26 passes for 194 yards. MRA limited Lewis – rated the No. 11 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports – to one catch for 13 yards. MRA limited senior running back Kylin Champagne – rated the No. 40 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports – to only nine yards on four carries.
“It was a total team effort for sure,” MRA defensive coordinator Danny White said. “I have to give a shout out to our kicker Wade Hansford who did a great job on kickoff getting the ball deep giving us great field position all night. Our defensive tackles Win Crews and Cam Starkey did a great job with movement inside. Our defensive ends Cade Gentry, Patrick Plunkett, James Downer and Brody Brown give us a rotation keeping guys fresh. They did a great job keeping the qb in the pocket. Linebackers Jackson Toler and Parker Durham were solid on run fits that allowed us to do more on third down. Defensive backs AJ Parker and Jake McMillan when tested one on one were able to stay on top of routes and win.”
These teams are two of the most successful football programs in the MHSAA (Oak Grove) and the MAIS (MRA).
Oak Grove has won more games this past decade than any other team in the highest classification, now 7A, in the MHSAA. Going into Friday night, the Warriors have won 56 of their last 64 games, 87.5 percent, and have won the state title twice in the past four years, last season in Class 7A and 2020 in Class 6A and was runner-up in 2018 and 2019.
MRA has won 52 of its last 64 games (81.3 percent) and 60 of its last 66 games (90.9 percent) against MAIS teams before Friday night. The Patriots won three straight MAIS Class 6A state championships from 2019-2021 and appeared in five consecutive state title games from 2018-2022.
This is the second time MRA has hosted a team from the highest classification in MSHAA in football. Class 6A St. Martin defeated MRA 51-28 in 2016. MRA hasn’t lost a home game to an MHSAA team since, winning against Class 4A St. Stanislaus 59-14 in 2018 and Class 3A Raleigh 39-28 in 2022.
Last year’s first meeting between MRA and Oak Grove was an instant classic.
The two amazing offenses produced more than 1,000 yards of total offense.
Oak Grove’s Caleb Moore, now a freshman at Southern Miss, stopped MRA running back Charles Simpson, now at Mississippi College, short of a goal line on a two-point conversion try to give Oak Grove a 45-44 victory in overtime before an estimated 4,000 at Oak Grove’s Warrior Field in Hattiesburg.
Oak Grove and MRA came into the game ranked No. 2 and No. 12 respectively in Mississippi by MaxPreps coming into the game.
