Ocean Springs, Gulfport will meet with championship at stake. ‘They better come ready’
Another chapter in one of the biggest and newest rivalries on the Mississippi Coast will be written Friday.
Gulfport (6-2, 3-0) and Ocean Springs (4-4, 3-0) will meet at Greyhound Stadium with the Region 4-7A championship on the line. It will be third straight year the two meet with unbeaten district records, and the winner this season will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The game has decided the district championship in each of the last two years, with the Greyhounds having come out on top both times as part of a four-game win streak over Gulfport.
The rivalry has naturally blossomed since the turn of the decade, and received an extra spark in 2023 when head coach Blake Pennock left Ocean Springs for the same job at Gulfport.
Pennock’s offensive coordinator at Ocean Springs, Jake Bramlett, took over the Greyhounds and has continued what has grown into a 22-game region winning streak.
The two are set to coach against each other for the second time in a game that has quickly gained importance.
“First and foremost, it sets you up for your playoffs,” Bramlett told the Sun Herald. “That’s our primary focus. And then this game becoming a rivalry over the last three to four years has amplified it a little bit. It’s a really big game for our community and these players, ours and theirs. Everybody thinks about it going into the season.”
The newest edition of the game represents a changing moment in the series. Both sides are establishing fresh identities and building off the change last year brought to each program.
Most importantly, each team is leaving the past behind.
New era begins
The previous meeting was emotionally charged by the unique circumstances of the matchup. It was Pennock’s fourth appearance in the game, but his first on the sideline opposite the Greyhounds.
The two rosters were senior-heavy. On one side was the monster Pennock created, eager to bring down its old coach. On the other was the program Pennock hoped to awaken.
“When I got to Ocean Springs, we were trying to build up the program to kind of take over Gulfport and now I’m on the other side of it and trying to build up Gulfport to overtake Ocean Springs,” Pennock said. “So it’s unique in this situation, you know, kind of continuing to be the hunter in that aspect of it.”
That game would end up being Pennock’s first loss in the series. But it also served as closure. Ocean Springs got its measure of revenge before a large group of seniors graduated and the Admirals reloaded the two-deep with second-year Pennock players ready to push the program forward.
The game has taken on a new light as a result.
“I thought the game last year was more, for the obvious reasons, it was more about me, which I wasn’t really super comfortable with,” Pennock said. “I think this year is more about just two really good football teams battling it out for the region title and that’s what it should be. It should be about our players and the two programs.”
The same has been felt by Bramlett, who doesn’t feel he has to corral the emotions of his players this week.
“A lot of the emotion from that aspect of it kind of went out with the last group,” Bramlett said. “This is a completely new football team. (The players) know who is over there, but they’re not attached to it.”
The hunted
The only attachment evident on either side is the one with their respective spotless district records, which they both intend to keep intact.
The Greyhounds are on a three-game winning streak after grinding through a brutal non-district schedule where their opponents scored close to 30 points a game on a defense with 10 new starters, and the offense struggled to maintain pace with a new quarterback tandem.
Ocean Springs made a change at quarterback coming out of its bye week by rolling with Sharroid Whitehead full time, and got a statement performance from its defense in the region-opener against D’Iberville. The 27-13 win wasn’t as close as the score would suggest and allowed Bramlett’s team to form a stronger identity.
“That was a huge game for us as a program, as a team, for the players and the staff,” Bramlett said. “We had a really tough non-region schedule that was preparing us for what we had coming up. You come out of it, you’d like to have picked up a few more wins, but you play good football and just didn’t come out on the winning side of the scoreboard in a lot of those games. You were still learning how to win as a football team. This team has a bunch of players that have been a part of a lot of wins, but they’ve never been a part of it together.”
The Ocean Springs roster is full of players who won championships in middle school and on the 9th-grade team. That experience has given the Greyhounds an edge and desire to maintain tradition now that they’ve been tasked with the defense of a throne their predecessors claimed.
“It’s a prove everybody wrong mentality,” Whitehead said. “It’s the standard that coach Bramlett holds us at. The guys in my grade, we grew up winning. We were winning eighth grade championships, ninth grade championships so we know it takes to win. We just have to show y’all.”
The standard is known best by a select group. Will Smith and Bryshen Smith are both veterans on offense and have over 1,500 all-purpose yards combined. But the lone player with experience on the opposite side is Bryant Ausmer.
The senior isn’t just focused on wreaking havoc — though his Coast-leading 12 sacks suggest he’s doing a good job in that department — but he’s also invested in passing on what the standard is at Ocean Springs.
“Knowing what we had last year and the expectations that we’re held to, I’m just bringing my guys up to that,” Ausmer said. “Helping us be better and be better than the last group that was here.”
The hunter
It’s never been any secret as to who the primary challenger would be to Ocean Springs. Despite steep production losses and losing many standouts along the line of scrimmage, Pennock felt better about this team coming into the year than he did last season’s group, thanks to a second offseason for the younger players to develop through.
The Admirals have already secured their first signature win of the Pennock era, with a 20-point pummeling of Picayune in September. For the players, the march to December is no longer just a learning process, and the emotions of the past no longer linger.
“We’re definitely more confident, really, we just have a whole different mindset,” running back Cooper Crosby said. “We know that we can win the game and we know that we’re capable of a lot. We want to go far. Last year it was Coach Pennock’s first year and there was a lot in that. Our minds weren’t really set on just winning the game and there was a lot of emotion. This year, we’re just ready to go and win the game.”
Crosby and defensive end Javon Anderson both credit an improved bond among teammates and unselfish play for Gulfport’s resurgence. It’s shown in how the Admirals have found ways to win in a different ways.
Crosby and backfield mate Dakoreyon Payton have 23 total touchdowns between them and are the focal point of the game plan. Biloxi did a good job disrupting that plan, but the Admiral stepped up and delivered a 21-7 win.
St. Martin also limited Gulfport’s typically explosive run game, so the Admirals turned to the arm of Dane Sullivan. His 262 passing yards and three touchdowns led the way in the 42-7 drubbing.
Gulfport has outscored its district foes 91-33 and the versatility and adaptability has give it confidence heading into the biggest game of its regular season.
“We’re coming in with a very high head,” Anderson said. “We’re coming in thinking we can win the game and run away with it, actually... We all know what the goal is this week and we all know what’s at stake.”
“We’re coming,” Crosby said. “It’s going to be a dog fight. It’s not going to be like past years. We want to win. We’re rolling and we’re coming.”
The Greyhounds will have a response.
“You better come ready,” Whitehead said. “I feel like I want it badder than all those dudes on that side. I know my guys want it badder than all of them. They better come ready.”
