Video: Starkville High School Defeats Petal, Wins 6A State Football Championship

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OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI Sports) – Starkville High School is the last team standing in Mississippi’s largest football classification.

Starkville High School players pose after winning the state championship Friday.

The Yellow Jackets shut down Petal to win the 6A state championship 27-7 Friday night in Oxford. It’s the school’s sixth state title and first since 2012. It’s the seventh championship in the state of Mississippi for Starkville’s first-year head coach Ricky Woods.

Starkville (14-1) jumped out to a 21-0 first-half lead due in large part to senior wide receiver A.J. Brown and sophomore running back Dre Swanigan, who was playing in place of injured Avery Brown. A.J. Brown finished with 10 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown, all in the first half. He broke the Starkville single-season receptions mark with 83.

Swanigan had 24 carries for 161 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Senior quarterback Montario Montgomery was 13-of-19 passing for 144 yards and the touchdown to Brown. Starkville led 21-7 at halftime and accumulated 390 total yards in the game.

The Yellow Jackets’ defense shut down Petal’s attack. Lorenzo Dantzler, Terrance Grayer, Jeremy Skinner and Abdural Lee had six tackles each. Dantzler and Willie Gay each had two tackles for a loss. Starkville limited Petal (10-5) to 219 yards of total offense.

The Yellow Jackets’ players said this offseason that their sights were set on the state title after exiting last year’s playoffs one round short of the championship game. Woods became head coach in May after previous head coach Jamie Mitchell took the same job at North Little Rock in Arkansas. Woods arrived in Starkville having won six state titles in Mississippi in ten combined years as the head coach of South Panola and Ackerman high schools.