Pascagoula, Moss Point flash plenty of potential in ‘Battle of the Cats’ scrimmage
From the matching gray masks that the Moss Point football team wore on the sideline before kickoff to the mostly empty stands, it was far from your usual “Battle of the Cats” Friday night at War Memorial Stadium.
It was a meaningless jamboree that won’t count in the win or the loss column, but it was at least a sign that the 2020 high school football season is on its way to becoming a reality in Mississippi.
“As soon as the whistle blew, it was on. It was full tilt Moss Point-Pascagoula,” said Pascagoula coach Lewis Sims, who is a former Moss Point player and coach.
Pascagoula and Moss Point were initially supposed to meet in their annual season opener on Aug. 21, but that was canceled after COVID-19 pandemic forced the Mississippi High School Activities Association to delay the start of the season until Sept. 4.
Pascagoula topped Moss Point 10-6 Friday night in a scrimmage that provided signs of promise for both teams, but also showed there was still stuff to clean up before the season starts.
The scrimmage featured two of the better dual-threat quarterbacks on the Coast in Pascagoula sophomore Keilon Parnell, a Mississippi State baseball commit, and Moss Point senior Ruben “Deuce” Lee, who holds Div. 1 offers from Southeastern Louisiana, Jackson State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The two players had the two biggest moments on offense in the game.
Parnell flashed the speed that makes him one of the Coast’s better defensive outfielders and allowed him to rush for 435 yards last season as a freshman quarterback.
On Pascagoula’s third possession, he faked the hand-off and found a wide open gap in the left side of the line for an 89-yard run to set the Panthers up at the Moss Point 4.
“It was a big hole,” Parnell said. “The line did good on their blocks. Jaylan Thompson, our receiver, had a big hole for me. I just executed and ran as fast as I can.”
On the next play, senior Kayvon Barnes punched it in from 4 yards out to give the Panthers a 10-0 lead.
While Parnell didn’t have his best showing throwing the ball, completing 2-of-8 passes for 11 yards and 10 touchdowns, he ran three times for 112 yards to help give the Panthers a lift before they host George County next week to start the regular season.
After spending much of his summer playing baseball, Parnell is anxious to take a step forward this season at quarterback.
“It’s just trusting my line,” Parnell said. “I’m rushing it. I’ll get my reads better.”
While Parnell’s 89-yard scamper was the highlight of the game, he is still kicking himself about getting run down by Moss Point senior defensive back Jadden Matthews.
“That man, Jadden,” Parnell said with his teeth clinched in a grin. “(I’ll probably hear about it) in a group chat we’ve got.”
The 6-foot, 165-pound Matthews is another Div. 1 prospect for Moss Point, holding scholarship offers from Austin Peay and Tennessee State.
The most prominent prospect on the Moss Point roster is junior receiver Larry Simmons, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound receiver who holds offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Mississippi State, Miami, Nebraska, Oregon, Ole Miss and Southern Miss. He had two catches for 23 yards and one run for 12 yards in the two quarters of action Friday night.
After Moss Point failed to get anything out of its first four possessions, junior linebacker Dashawn Graham gave the Tigers some life when he picked off Parnell in Pascagoula territory early in the second quarter.
After Moss Point picked up a first down at the Pascagoula 11, Lee ran for 10 yards and then a 1-yard touchdown to put the Tigers on the board at 10-6.
Lee finished the night completing 5-of-11 passes for 55 yards and running five times for 11 yards.
Even though his team came up short, Moss Point coach Eugene was encouraged by what he saw Friday night ahead of next season’s season opener — a home game against Ocean Springs.
“The penalties, I’m glad we got those jitters out of our way,” Harmon said. “We had a lot of dead ball penalties that we’ve got to get fixed.”
Harmon said one bright note Friday night is that he appears to have found his starting right tackle in sophomore Willie Casey.
While opponents will have to keep an eye on Simmons in the passing game, senior Chanton Millender is every bit as dangerous at receiver after catching 65 passes for 1,087 yards and 14 touchdowns a year ago.
“The thing is that ain’t even a quarter of the offense,” Moss Point coach Eugene Harmon said of Friday’s jamboree. “We came out pretty basic on offense. We’ve got a lot more packages we’re going to be running this year. That was just showing what we did all last year. We knew Ocean Springs wasn’t playing this week so we didn’t want to show much.”
While Moss Point will be the favorite to repeat as champions in Region 8-4A, Pascagoula may be ready to turn a corner in 4-5A.
“We’ve got some guys that we count on every single day and they keep getting better,” Sims said. “We’re as athletic as we’ve been in a while and we’re smart. If we just keep getting every single day, that’s what we want to see. We want to contend in November.”
