Picayune is known for its high-powered offense, but the defense rose up in leading the Maroon Tide to a 27-20 victory against the George County Rebels on Friday night at Lee-Triplett Stadium.
The win secured the fourth consecutive region championship for Picayune (8-2 overall, 4-0 in 4-6A) and home-field advantage through the playoffs.
The Rebels (6-4, 3-1) can finish as the runner-up in the region with a win in their regular-season finale against Pascagoula, which knocked off West Harrison on Friday to also move to 3-1 in the region.
The Maroon Tide expected to have their hands full with superstar George County quarterback Deuce Knight.
The Auburn commit had his moments for the Rebels. He scored two touchdowns rushing and tossed a TD pass, but Picayune harassed him in the backfield most of the night—in particular BJ Ducre, who sacked Knight three times, and Nolan Wilson, who had a sack on Knight and forced two fumbles.
The biggest moment of the game came with about six minutes to play in the fourth quarter and Picayune leading 27-20.
George County moved the ball inside the Maroon Tide 1-yard line, but a tackle for loss by freshman defensive tackle Kylen Egana pushed the ball back to the 5 and a false start by the Rebels moved it to the 10.
Ducre then sacked Knight and was in on another sack with Wilson on a fourth-down attempt to force a turnover on downs and keep the Rebels out of the end zone.
“It was all MTXE (Mental Toughness Xtreme Effort),” said Maroon Tide coach Cody Stogner. “I’m proud of the players and coaches.”
Picayune’s offense never threw a pass all night and used its potent running game to control the clock and the line of scrimmage.
“I thought they played great,” said Stogner of the Maroon Tide offensive line. “We were moving the ball 5-6 yards at a time and didn’t feel like we needed to throw it.”
The Picayune line of left tackle Jakob Nixon; guards Canaan Uzel, Javen Bolden and AK Burnette; center Brennan Williams; and right tackle Marquiz Solomon was dominant in the run game.
“It’s tiring, but it’s also rewarding in knowing they trust me to make the block,” said Burnette.
Burnette, Uzel and Bolden were pulling with kickout blocks all night.
Picayune, however, fumbled four times and lost three of them, something Stogner said the Maroon Tide will have to clean up.
“We have been good as of late in that area, but we weren’t tonight,” said Stogner.
With Picayune up 6-0, the Rebels capitalized on one of those turnovers when Knight scored on an 18-yard run to cap a 70-yard, nine-play drive that was aided by two 15-yard penalties. The extra point was blocked.
Darrell Smith, who scored on a 3-yard run to put Picayune on the board first, tallied his second TD of the night on a 17-yard toss sweep that capped a 66-yard, 10-play drive with 46 seconds to play in the first half. The extra point by Edgar Cruz put the Maroon Tide on top 13-6.
Smith, who battled leg cramps most of the second half due to playing on both sides of the ball, finished with 144 yards on 17 carries.
But Knight showed why he is one of the top high school signal callers in the nation with an incredible drive in the last minute of the first half.
After he busted off a pair of long runs, Knight fired a bullet to Brenn Moody for a 20-yard touchdown to culminate a 65-yard, five-play drive. Layton Fryfogle tacked on the extra point and the game was tied 13-13 at the half.
The Rebels stole a possession to start the second half with a pooch kickoff that Picayune didn’t recover at its 40.
Five plays later, Knight scored on a 5-yard sweep and the extra point put George County up 20-13.
Picayune’s Tristan Cooper scored from 5 yards out to cap a 78-yard, five-play drive and Cruz added the point after to tie the game at 20-20 with 2:04 to play in the third quarter.
Bam Parker, one of several key players going both ways for Picayune, then picked off a jump-ball pass from Knight at the Maroon Tide 32. An unsportsmanlike penalty on the Rebels’ sideline moved the ball to the 47, followed by a personal foul that moved it to the George County 35.
Cooper, who rushed for 106 yards, scored on a 5-yard run to cap a 10-play, 68-yard drive. Cruz added the point after to put Picayune up 27-20 with just over 10 minutes to play in the game.
George County continued to fight back and moved the ball to first-and-goal within the Maroon Tide 1-yard line, but Picayune’s defensive stand thwarted the drive.
Picayune took over at its 16 with about six minutes to play and drove to the George County 20, where the Maroon Tide turned the ball over on downs with 54 seconds left.
Knight then nearly pulled off the same heroics that ended the first half, leading the Rebels to midfield. But out of timeouts and the clock rolling, Knight scrambled out of the pocket and was sacked by Wilson, causing a fumble that was recovered by Cooper to end any thoughts of a George County comeback.
Picayune defensive coordinator Seth Hayden had high praise for his players on that side of the ball.
“We got some great stops, got some pressure on (Knight), but these kids believed in the game plan and executed it,” said Hayden. “Our plan was to keep them under 28 points. We thought if we could do that, we’d have a good chance of winning the game.”
Stogner and Hayden praised Knight for his ability but gushed about the effort of the Picayune defense.
“Relentless effort,” said Stogner of the key in containing Knight, who was coming off nine touchdowns and a 600-yard effort in George County’s 68-49 win over West Harrison last week.
“For us to get four sacks on him is great,” said Hayden. “He’s so hard to bring down.”
The Rebels have lost six straight to the Maroon Tide dating back to 2013.
Picayune will close out the regular season on Thursday at Hancock while George County will host Pascagoula in the Rebels’ regular-season finale, also set for Thursday.
