By Robert Wilson
Madison-Ridgeland Academy coach Herbert Davis might be the best offensive high school coach in Mississippi.
Consider this: His teams have scored at least 40 points in 24 of their last 29 games, that’s 82.8 percent.
Jackson Prep was the last opponent to feel the wrath of Davis’ offense as MRA scored 35 points in the first half and rolled to a 49-21 victory in non-district MAIS game before an estimated 2,500 at Prep’s Patriot Field in Flowood.
MRA – ranked No. 4 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – won its fourth straight game and improved to 4-1. Prep – ranked No. 16 In Mississippi by MaxPreps – broke its two-game winning streak and dropped to 2-3.
Davis won his 250th career game in 29 seasons, including 115 wins in 13 seasons at MRA. He has won six state championships, three at MRA and two at Brookhaven Academy and one at Pillow Academy.
And the majority of those wins have come from scoring a lot of points like he has done for the past three seasons. In 2023 with senior quarterback and current Southern Miss quarterback John White – Mississippi’s career passing yards leader – MRA scored 40 or more points for the first 11 games before losing to Prep 28-25 in the MAIS Class 6A semifinals. Then, Davis’ 2024 team scored 40 or more points nine of its 12 games. This year, after losing 28-24 to Ravenwood, Tenn., one of the top teams in Tennessee, MRA has defeated MHSAA Class 3A Jefferson Davis County 47-6, two-time defending MAIS state champion Hartfield Academy 49-21 and Collierville, Tenn. (the largest public school in Tennessee) 62-37. The win over Collierville was the most points scored on them since 2011.
MRA was once again producing yards and touchdowns, especially in the first half. MRA’s impressive offensive line of junior right tackle Brody Brown (6-foot-3, 229 pounds), senior right guard Heed Burnham (6-3, 292), senior center Morgan McCrory (6-foot, 215), junior left guard Clay Lawson (6-3, 304), junior left tackle Caleb Unger (6-3, 295), junior tight end Tripp Carroll (5-11, 195), and senior tight end Will Jones (6-3, 188). Unger is a member of the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team.
MRA jumped out to a 21-0 lead on the strength of TDs by sophomore running back Colson O’Cain (28-yard run), sophomore defensive back Daniel Perkins (a 73-yard fumble return) and senior wide receiver Case Thomas (a 73-yard pass from senior quarterback Samuel Stockett). After Prep scored on a 80-yard run by junior running back Wade Smith, MRA senior running back Michael McCrory scored on a 15-yard run and senior running back Jaxon Jenkins scored on a 3-yard run for a 35-7 halftime lead.
Stockett threw TD passes to Jones (30 yards) and Thomas (63 yards) in the second half.
Stockett – who was the Junction Deli/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Player of the Week after throwing for 539 yards and five TDs against Collierville – completed 12 of 22 passes for 312 yards and three TD against Prep.
Thomas – a member of the Elite 11 team like Unger – had six catches for 200 yards and two TDs, his second straight big game. He had eight catches for 194 yards and two TDs against Collierville. McCrory had 14 carries for 105 yards and one TD. O’Cain had 10 carries for 98 yards and one TD.
“(Former Alabama coach) Nick Saban said it is all about the process and we are trying to get better every week,” Davis said. “It all starts up front. We need to do well up front and everything else will fall into place. We rushed for 252 yards against Prep. That was good to see. Samuel and Case had back to back good games. We were able to hit some big pass plays and were able to run the football. Case knows how to get open and separate after he catches the ball.”
“We got off to a bad start,” Prep coach Doug Goodwin said. “They scored on the first drive and then we fumbled and they ran it back for a TD. We had a few calls go against us in the second half that led to another score. It’s hard to beat a good team when you do that and they are a good team.”
