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PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Brookhaven Academy junior Walt Smith jogs off the field as he takes off his helmet.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Brookhaven Academy hosted Hartfield Academy for the Cougars’ first home game of the season.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Brookhaven Academy hosted Hartfield Academy for the Cougars’ first home game of the season.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Brookhaven Academy hosted Hartfield Academy for the Cougars’ first home game of the season.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Walt Smith carries tacklers as he breaks off Brookhaven Academy’s longest play of the night on a 32 yard rush.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Brookhaven Academy hosted Hartfield Academy for the Cougars’ first home game of the season.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD New Brookhaven Academy head coach Ryan Ross instructs his team during a timeout.

PHOTO BY HUNTER CLOUD Braden Revere returns a kickoff against Hartfield Academy.

To the fan sitting in the bleachers during halftime, wondering aloud why Brookhaven Academy had scheduled Hartfield Academy for its first home football game of the season, the answer is they didn’t. The MAIS creates the schedules for its football programs.

The thought is that if the league doesn’t tell teams to play the 6A schools like Hartfield, why would anyone voluntarily schedule them?

As bad as that stinks for schools like 5A BA, the powers that be in the league office aren’t wrong.

On Friday at R.M. “Red” Stuard Field, the Hawks from Flowood flexed their muscles often and early on the way to a 63-7 win over the Cougars.

The field was packed with fans from both teams as Cougar supporters sat in the bleachers, on the concrete steps that slope down the adjacent hill and in tents lined along the rim of the north endzone.

There were videographers from multiple Jackson news stations in attendance, shooting the first half of the game.

One of the highlights of the night for BA was the opening kickoff, as Reeves Lindley kicked one short and high to an unsuspecting Hartfield return team. Junior Glen Lewis raced down and dove on the ball after it bounced among the legs of two Hartfield players for the recovery.

On their third offensive play after that kickoff, the Cougars had an option pitch that sailed over the head of the running back.

Hartfield senior defensive back Kenzy West picked the ball up off the bounce and ran 57-yard for a touchdown that came with 10:14 left on the clock.

West, standing 6-foot and weighing 185-pounds, is a three-star recruit that holds offers from Ole Miss, Arkansas, LSU, NC State, Memphis, Southern Miss and others.

Things went from bad to worse for BA on the kickoff following the opening score as the ball bounced from the hands of the return man into another possession for the Hawks.

A holding penalty moved HA back to the BA 37-yard line to start the drive, but quarterback Cayman Tapper dropped back on first down and found wide receiver Bralan Womack wide open for a touchdown pass.

Tapper’s mom Marcie Smith Tapper grew up cheering for the Cougars on the sidelines as she’s an alum of the school. Cayman Tapper was the starting quarterback last season for Hartfield when the Hawks went 14-0 and won the first MAIS 6A championship in school history.

Later in the first quarter, Hartfield scored its first rushing touchdown when senior running back Josh Wooten crashed into the endzone from the 4-yard line.

Wooten ran right behind massive sophomore offensive lineman Limarcus Jones, who clocks in at 6-foot-5, 285-pounds.

The Cougars attempted one pass in the first half and that ball was intercepted by Womack, one of the most highly sought-after junior safeties in the nation. Womack runs a 4.53 40-yard dash and recently trimmed his top schools to 10 teams. The 6-foot, 196-pound playmaker is considered a Notre Dame lean, but is also entertaining Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, LSU, and Mississippi State among others for his future football home.

Womack weaved his way through would-be tacklers from BA to score on the pick-6 that put Hartfield up 35-0 with 10 minutes remaining until halftime.

The lone first down of the first two quarters for the Cougars came when junior running back Walt Smith darted through the defensive line for a 32-yard run. However, a fumble on the next play was recovered by Hartfield.

Room to run was at a premium all night for the home team as Hartfield boasts the most formidable defensive line duo in the state, regardless if we’re talking about public or private schools.

Senior defensive tackle London Simmons is committed to play next at the University of Alabama. The 6-foot-3, 295-pound Simmons burst onto the recruiting radar of major programs after he had six sacks in a 21-0 win against Jackson Prep for the state title last year.

He’s joined up front by Reginald Vaughn, a 6-foot-3, 268-pound commit to the University of Arkansas. It was the transfer of Vaughn to Hartfield last year from St. Joseph Catholic in Madison that made headlines as the MAIS originally found the Hawks guilty of recruiting from another school in the MAIS, which is against the rules.

The original punishment was for HA to be barred from the postseason along with a fine and the suspension of two coaches, but the MAIS then later overturned that punishment on an appeal and Hartfield went on to win state.

Much of that drama was unfolding right around the time that BA and Hartfield were playing last year in Flowood, a game won 56-0 by the Hawks. HA kicked off its 2024 season last week with a 49-7 win over Heritage Academy and have now won 16 straight games.

The final scoring play of the first half for Hartfield put them up 49-0 at the break and came just before the horn sounded to end the second quarter.

Hartfield receiver Woods Roberson broke off on a post route over the middle and the BA defensive back covering him read it perfectly. The defender arrived just as the ball did, but Roberson was able to make the catch, shrug off the contact, and jog into the endzone.

Though it still ended in a score, it was a much better defended play than the opening touchdown pass for the visitors a quarter earlier.

“If they’re going to make a great play and beat you, then so be it, but you can’t just give it to them by being out of position or being undisciplined and I think we made less of those mistakes as the game went on,” said first year BA head coach Ryan Ross. “We had way too many unforced errors against a very good football team, like turning to pitch the ball to a running back who’s run the wrong way. Those are the kind of things that I don’t want to see from a team I’m coaching.”

The highlight of the night for the Cougars was an 86-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Smith, who was less than 100 percent with a lower leg injury. Smith shot through the Hartfield return team and scored to make it 56-7 as the clock did not stop in the second half.

Ross told his team afterwards it was time to regroup and refocus. Up next for the Cougars (0-2) is a road trip to face 4A Centreville Academy on Friday. Centreville dropped a 14-7 loss at Riverfield Academy to open their season.

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