Pascagoula running back Amarie Jackson scored three touchdowns Friday night to lead the Panthers to a resounding 21-7 homecoming victory over the D’Iberville Warriors.
Pascagoula took the early lead with a great drive that ended on Jackson’s first touchdown, which was from 14 yards out.
“Amarie is a dog and one tough hombre,” said Pascagoula coach Lewis Sims. “He is selfless and a consummate team player. He will do whatever it takes to win.”
Jackson started as a ninth-grader and now as a junior, and he has become one of the leaders of this team.
“I’m so proud of this team,” said Jackson, one of Pascagoula’s captains. “We have so much God-given natural talent, and we are all mostly young. The offensive line did a great job handling those big boys up front.”
To echo Jackson’s statement about the offensive line, Sims credited his coaches and strong week of practice.
“Our offensive line was stellar tonight,” said Sims. “It’s a credit to Coach (Eric) Hollis for prepping them to perform how they did tonight. They were awesome.”
Pascagoula forced and recovered three D’Iberville fumbles, cashing in two of those for touchdowns. D’Iberville coach Josh Ladner said that was the team’s downfall.
“The game came down to turnovers,” he said. “That’s the number one factor in winning and losing games—the turnover battle. We didn’t make plays when we needed to and didn’t hold on to the football.
“However, I’m proud of our efforts. We played hard and kept fighting through to the end of the game regardless of the score.”
The Panthers’ second touchdown came after one of those fumbles when senior quarterback and Southern Miss commit Silas Corder found Jackson on the sideline. A Warriors defender dove at Jackson and he was able to elude him and take it 63 yards down the sideline for an electric touchdown.
“I’ve been with Silas my whole life and he is a dog,” said Jackson, who had no clue about his stats other than three touchdowns. “Silas continues to get better and better and it’s amazing.”
“I’m being for real when I say I don’t care about stats or scoring touchdowns. I was just doing what I had to do to win.”
One of D’Iberville’s most threatening drives ended with a spectacular interception by Pascagoula junior safety Tylan Wilson.
Wilson, who was the 2023 Class 6A Safety of the Year in Mississippi as a 10th- grader, is highly touted and receiving offers from many schools, including Alabama. He made a circus one-handed catch as his body went one way and his arm reached back and picked it out of the sky all in one motion.
“Special athletes make special plays and that’s what he did,” said Sims. “That’s in the top 10 plays I’ve seen in my career. It was incredibly special.”
Pascagoula bounced back from a sloppy game last week in a 38-31 loss to archrival Gautier. It was a game riddled with ugliness with double-digit penalties on both teams and lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours.
Pascagoula had only three flags against D’Iberville and played its cleanest game of the year.
“It was a huge win for our team,” said Sims. “Everyone did their job, and it was a total team effort. We improved across the board tonight in our assignments, blocking, tackling and alignments. We—players and coaches— did a great job communicating with each other and that’s what good football teams do.”
One unfortunate injury for Pascagoula happened near the end of the game. Senior linebacker Jaylon Parnell, a Louisiana Tech commit, broke his fibula and is expected to be out four to six weeks.
Pascagoula (3-1) will host Biloxi next week in its final non-region game of the season. The Panthers will kick off region play on Oct. 11 when they visit Picayune.
D’Iberville (2-2) will host Wayne County next week.
