A Mississippi Coast playoff record was produced on Friday. Here were the biggest stories
Mississippi Coast football achieved a first on Friday by securing four wins in the state playoffs.
The Coast will send four teams from four different classifications to the South State championship round for the first time ever next week after Ocean Springs, Picayune, Gautier and Poplarville all earned victories in their second and third round matchups.
The full breakdown of the week’s games can be found at SunHerald.com.
Here are the biggest stories from the week’s action.
Ocean Springs streaking
The Greyhounds have come a long way from 1-4 and are now South State bound after a 27-14 win over Oak Grove.
Ocean Springs has won seven in a row after a brutally slow start when its defense struggled during non-region play and limped into its district schedule with a massive target on its back.
But two things happened. First, Sharroid Whitehead. The multi-talented athlete was placed at quarterback full time and threw for 144 yards in his first start at the position against D’Iberville. Since then, Whitehead has eclipsed 100 rushing yards three times and has been responsible for 15 total touchdowns.
The second thing: complete defensive turnaround. Ocean Springs allowed 29 points per game through non-district, but has given up just 13.2 since region play began. And it wasn’t the schedule lightening up. The Greyhounds opened the playoffs with a 24-17 rematch win over Northwest Rankin after losing 29-28 to the Cougars in overtime in September.
And then came Oak Grove. The Warriors gained nearly 400 total yards of offense in a 35-21 win in September. In the rematch, Ocean Springs held Oak Grove to two scores and one came on a short field after a fumble. Now the biggest test awaits with Region 3 champion Brandon coming to town.
Second-half Tide, meet second-game Tide
Picayune has been a force to reckon with in the second half all year long. Also true: Cody Stogner entered the week 2-0 when facing a team for the second time in a season. Mix the two together and you get a halftime deficit flipped into a dominating 63-40 rematch victory over George County.
The Maroon Tide trailed the Rebels 21-14 at the break, putting them in a familiar spot. Picayune was behind in the second half of wins against D’Iberville, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula and George County (the first time).
So what happened next shouldn’t be a surprise. Picayune had a 42-21 lead in about the amount of time it would take a fan to grab a hot chocolate from the concession stand and return to their seat.
Picayune would outscore the Rebels 49-19 over the final 24 minutes of the game. The Tide have won a rematch playoff game in each of the last three years and have done so with an average score of 50-18.
This is great news for Region 3 champion Hattiesburg, who has not faced the Tide yet this year. But 6A Mr. Football Deuce Vance and the Tigers may still be in trouble if they get off to too fast of a start in their South State title matchup on Friday.
Gators adapting and surviving
Gautier pushes on to the semifinal round, but it hasn’t been an easy road.
The Gators escaped Natchez in round one after self-inflicted wounds nearly did them in and Wayne County’s clock-eating offense forced Gautier to be near-perfect in Friday’s 28-27 win over the War Eagles.
But Marc High’s team has proven to be extremely adaptive and well-equipped to handle close games. Gautier is now 5-0 in one-score games this season and they’ve earned their wins in a variety of ways.
Five takeaways and a clutch field goal set up a walk-off touchdown pass from Trey Irving in the season-opening overtime win against Harrison Central. Gautier turned to a freshman running back in Latrell Pogue to score the go-ahead touchdown in the Singing River Classic against Pascagoula.
The Gator defense made a goal line stand in the final moments of a 42-41 win over Columbia and Kasin Thomas turned a short pass into a 55-yard go-ahead score against Natchez.
Defense again played hero against Wayne County, stopping a late two-point conversion attempt to preserve Gautier’s lead and punch the school’s third straight ticket to South State, where it’ll face Brookhaven.
No miracle needed in Popvegas
Stress levels and blood pressures among Poplarville coaches were given a week to normalize. After back-to-back one-point wins over Mendenhall and Columbia in the first two rounds, the Hornets dispatched McComb 42-21 and did so with a big second half.
Poplarville shut out the Tigers over the final two quarters and poured in three insurance scores after leading 21-14 at the half. Five different Hornets found the end zone and quarterback Sydney Blackmon cracked the plane twice.
The Hornets have benefited from the return of 2023 freshman phenom Ty Keys, who played in only one regular season game due to a collarbone injury. Keys ran for 91 yards against Columbia and 97 yards versus McComb while topping five yards per carry in both games.
Keys adds to a running back room already stocked with 1,000-yard rusher Nick Miller, Zack Case and his 785 yards and Thomas Lambert’s 441-yard contribution. Poplarville’s backfield recorded its sixth 300-yard rushing game of the year against McComb.
A big test awaits, however, against a 12-1 Forest team featuring four different players over 100 tackles and two with at least 30 tackles for loss.
Top recruits finish careers
High school careers, at least. George County’s Deuce Knight and Pascagoula’s Silas Corder are the Coast’s No. 1 and No. 3 class of 2025 prospects, according to 247sports.com, and both played in their final high school games this week.
Knight is the state’s first composite five star quarterback since Jason Campbell in the class of 2000. The Auburn commit missed a handful of games his senior season and still found time to throw 25 touchdown passes and rush for an additional 12 scores.
Though he missed one game as a sophomore, four as a junior and three as a senior, Knight still managed to throw for over 5,500 yards in his career with over 80 touchdowns responsible for. He final act was guiding the Rebels to their first playoff win since 2007.
Corder’s career saw him join Knight in the 5,000-yard passing club. The three star Southern Miss commit rewrote his school’s record back while on his way to a 2,000-yard season that saw his throw 23 touchdown passes.
Corder leaves Pascagoula as the program’s all-time leader in quarterback wins, passing yards, passing touchdowns and completions. He also helped Darius Carter set the record for career touchdown catches. The Panthers scored their most points since 1934 under Corder’s guidance this season.
Both quarterbacks plan to sign early in December.
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
