The Oceans Springs playoff win leads Coast’s high school football weekend roundup
Ocean Springs won its first playoff game in seven years when it took down Pearl, 54-28, on Friday night. Quarterback Bray Hubbard accounted for six touchdowns in the win.
The Greyhounds went back-and-forth with the Pirates through the first two quarters of the game before opening up a blowout in the second half.
Ocean Springs scored 33 of its points in the back half of the game with five different players finding pay dirt in just the last 30 minutes alone.
A long touchdown run by Hubbard on the Greyhounds second play from scrimmage opened up the scoring for OSHS. Hubbard then hit JP Coulter from 14 yards out in the second quarter.
Coulter contributed on the ground as well, scoring on a sweep play just before halftime to give the Greyhounds a 21-14 lead.
The third quarter saw Hubbard keep it himself for a 31-yard score before tossing touchdown passes to Holton White and Coulter.
An Evan McNally touchdown catch and David Humphries touchdown run capped a busy night for the Greyhound offense.
Ocean Springs will host Oak Grove in the second round of the 6A playoffs next Friday night.
Warren Central 30, D’Iberville 21
D’Iberville fell victim to a playoff upset at the hands of Warren Central, which scored the final 17 points of the game to send the Warriors off their own turf.
Drey Lenoir gave the Warriors a 21-13 lead before WCHS answered by finding the end zone and tying the game with a two point conversion.
Warren Central would then hit a field goal and put the game away with a subsequent touchdown.
Lenoir led the Warriors with 77 rushing yards and 18 receiving yards. Caleb Williams caught three passes for 46 yards and a 29-yard touchdown.
D’Iberville finishes the year at 10-2 with 20 total wins over the last two years, the most since the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Oak Grove 33, Gulfport 7
Gulfport cut a 14-point Oak Grove lead in half in the first quarter but gave up 19 consecutive points the rest of the way in the Admirals first round exit from the playoffs.
Freshman Desmond Smith provided a short-lived spark for GHS with a 75-yard race to the house in the first quarter to give the Admirals what would ultimately be the their only score of the night.
Oak Grove hit on a 40-yard touchdown pass to open the game and followed up quickly with an 85-yard strike downfield to stun GHS with a quick 14-0 lead.
The Warriors would build a 27-7 lead in the first half and salt the game away with a 15-yard touchdown pass.
Gulfport finishes the season at 7-6 under John Archie just a year removed from a one-win campaign.
Brandon 39, Harrison Central 13
Harrison Central didn’t scratch a notch into its side of the scoreboard until late in the third quarter of a first round playoff route.
The Rebels were one of the three region four teams to fall in the opening round of the 6A playoffs.
Quarterback Christian Turner scored the HCHS’s first touchdown of the game on a six-yard keeper.
The Rebels began the season 5-0 before dropping four of their last five games to finish 6-4 on the year.
Picayune 35, Hattiesburg 13
The Maroon Tide got a hat trick out of running back Chris Davis who powered Picayune with three rushing touchdowns in the opening round of the 5A postseason.
The region champions remain perfect in their home building and made it eight wins in a row this year with the playoff victory.
Davis ran wild in the first half, scoring all three of his touchdowns in the first 30 minutes of the game. The sophomore opened the game with a short one-yard plunge on a quick toss before showing off the speed on a 24-yard touchdown jaunt minutes later.
Picayune got one more out of Davis in response to Hattiesburg’s first score of the game when he cut into the end zone from three yards out in the second quarter.
Quarterback Dawson Underwood connected with Noah Carter on a 25-yard touchdown strike over the middle in the third before Dante Dowdell put the game on ice with his own short touchdown run.
Picayune will host the Brookhaven Panthers next Friday night in the second round of the 5A playoffs.
Brookhaven 42, East Central 14
Picayune’s next opponent made easy work of East Central in the opening round with a big second half.
The Hornets struck first but were stung with 21 second quarter points by BHS.
East Central hung around and found itself within striking distance at halftime, though, down just 21-14. The Panthers stifled the Hornets the rest of the way, pitching a shutout in the last two frames.
The Hornets wrap up 2021 with a 7-4 record and are escorted out of the playoffs in the first round for the third straight year.
Laurel 59, George County 20
George County came out firing with a 79-yard score on the first play from scrimmage of the game. It was all Laurel after that with the next 28 points of the game belonging to the Golden Tornadoes.
The Rebels would score late in the first half and then again in the final minutes of the game with the contest well in hand.
Laurel scored three touchdowns in the second half and was not forced into a punt all game until early in the fourth quarter.
George County ends the year at 7-4 and will have to wait until next season for another opportunity to win its first playoff game since 2007.
West Jones 31, Gautier 28
Guatier rallied from an early 24-6 deficit but eventually came up just short in Laurel.
Quarterback Kaden Irving gave the Gators their first points of the game with a goal line sneak to cut into what had already been a 10-0 Mustang lead early in the second quarter.
After watching WJHS find the end zone twice more before the half, the Gators traded a touchdown for nine points when they turned an interception at the goal line into a safety and a subsequent touchdown on GHS’s ensuing drive.
Soon after the second half began the Gators struck again, bringing them to within two of the Mustangs at 24-22.
Irving then threw a five-yard touchdown pass with eight minutes to go in the game to give the Gators the lead and seemingly complete the comeback.
West Jones would later connect on a 31-yard touchdown pass in the final minutes and that represented the final points scored in the contest.
Gautier finishes the season 7-4 and made a postseason appearance for the first time since 2014.
Poplarville 28, Moss Point 18
Class 4A region eight champion Moss Point was upset at home by fellow coastal opponent Poplarville in the second round of the bracket.
Poplarville’s Avan Jarvis struck first in the match with a 15-yard touchdown run to cap a drive that featured multiple fourth down conversions.
Moss Point would answer with a touchdown pass from Terrance Goodwin to Larry Simmons in the back corner of the end zone but the Tigers missed the extra point.
DJ Richardbay scored on a short run to extend the Hornet’s lead in the second quarter.
Simmons and Richardbay traded scores with Simmons scoring twice more in the second half. It was Richardbay’s second touchdown that put away the game in the fourth quarter.
Poplarville moves onto the quarterfinals to face the Mendenhall Tigers at home next Friday.
Moss Point fell on its home turf against a 4A team for the first time since last year’s playoffs. This year made 10 consecutive seasons in the playoffs for the Tigers but 2015 remains the only year in that span MPHS made it out of the second round.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 11:15 AM.
