With the prep football season transitioning from the regular season into the playoffs, there is a veritable plethora of situations involving tie-breaking scenarios for postseason seeding in the larger classifications on Thursday night.
But even as the playoffs kick off on Friday night for the smaller classifications, one “Southern Six” squad still harbors a somewhat confusing situation possibly on the horizon next week.
Resurrection, the Region 8-1A champ, has alternated its regular season games between War Memorial Stadium in Pascagoula and Vaughan-Wallace Stadium in Gautier this year. The Eagles, in fact, open the Class 1A South State playoffs hosting French Camp Academy in Gautier Friday night. A win assures RCS of also hosting a second round playoff game.
But Gautier High has already secured an opening-round Class 5A South State home game next week, and if Pascagoula knocks off visiting George County Thursday night the Panthers would also get a first-round home game in the upcoming Class 6A South State playoffs next week as well.
So if RCS moves on with an opening-round win over FCA this week, where would the Eagles make a nest next week?
When contacted Tuesday morning by 228Sports, RCS second-year head coach Eric Denmark indicated that a second-round game would have to be played at either War Memorial Stadium or Vaughan-Wallace Stadium on either Thursday or Saturday next week and the choice would be up to the survivor of Friday’s West Talahatchie vs Leake County survivor.
Stay tuned….
Different paths
Unlike last season, in the first full year of prep sports overage in the “Southern Six” by 228Sports, no teams in our coverage are finished the regular season unbeaten like both Picayune and Ocean Springs did in 2022.
This year, instead, it’s quite possible we’ll have a pair of squads head into the off-season after suffering perfect campaigns on the other ed of the spectrum.
Pearl River Central finished up the season at 0-9 under first-year head coach Jacob Webb last week, wrapping up the win-less journey with a 56-0 loss to West Jones. The Blue Devils will carry a 13-game losing streak into next season, and PRC has also lost 18 of its last 19 games over the past two seasons.
But, St. Martin can top the Blue Devils by one once more Thursday night with a loss on the road to powerful Ocean Springs.
The Yellow Jackets are also 0-9 this year and are currently on a 16-game losing streak dating back to Sept. 16th of last season. The streak is the longest losing streak currently in the “Southern Six” as the Yellow Jackets wrap up the regular season with a trip to Ocean Springs Thursday night and a possibility to finish at 0-10.
If that happens, it would mark the first win-less season for SMHS in 13 years, since it finished 0-11 in 2010.
Ouch….
SUPER 7 IN THE SOUTHERN SIX WEEK 11
SUPER 7 IN THE SOUTHERN SIX Poll Week 11!
(Sponsored by Grand Mag Music)
The votes are in for Week Eleven!.
Each week, throughout the school year, a staff of our sports writers will vote on the “Super 7” teams for that week based on results from action the week before and we will publish our rankings each Tuesday afternoon.
The rankings will encompass ALL seven classifications:
SUPER 7 In the Southern 6
- Ocean Springs 8-1
- Picayune 7-2
- St. Stanislaus 9-1
- Pascagoula 7-2
- Gulfport 5-4
- Gautier 6-3
- Resurrection 7-2
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(Others receiving votes this week:
Pass Christian
George County
Poplarville
Hancock
Biloxi
Harrison Central)
228Sports Player of the Week
(Sponsored by Turfmasters)
This week’s 228Sports TurfMasters Player of the Week is Pascagoula quarterback Silas Corder. The Panthers picked up a key 46-27 win over West Harrison in Region 4-6A play thanks to a record-setting night by Corder, as broke former PHS All-American Shane Matthews’ career passing touchdown mark of 30 with five scoring strikes to move his total to 31 and he also completed 22 passes for 343 yards. Corder’s performance also tied a Panther record for five touchdown passes in a game. The Matthews record stood since 1987, the year he guided PHS to the state championship.
