By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Editor

Pascagoula and Biloxi are on course for a historic meeting on the football field this season.
And that milestone contest will be a part of a schedule for both the Panthers and Indians that keeps things close to home for each team this season.
When Pascagoula hosts Biloxi on Friday, Sept 27th, it’ll mark the 100th meeting ever on the gridiron between the schools. The series is the longest running rivalry for the Panthers in football, and the second longest for the Indians who will play long time arch-rival Gulfport for the 102nd time this season.
In addition, neither Pascagoula veteran head coach Lewis Sims or Biloxi first year head coach Jamey Dubose will have far to travel throughout the upcoming season as neither team ventures outside of the “Southern Six”.

“That was absolutely by design,” Sims, who is entering his 14th season at the helm of the Panthers, said. “Once there was an expansion to seven classifications we realized there’s way too many quality teams down here on the Coast that we could schedule that wouldn’t be in our region. That included Biloxi and D’Iberville, who we have had long running rivalries with over the years, as well as our traditional arch-rivals in Moss Point and Gautier.”
Pascagoula’s schedule features nothing but other foes from the “Southern Six”, including five Region 4-6A foes as well as three non region opponents from Jackson County (including East Central) and those two
aforementioned opponents from Harrison County.

The longest bus trip for the Panthers will be the 80-mile trek to Picayune to kick off Region 4-6A play on Friday, Oct. 11th.
“There’s absolutely no reason for us to go outside of that “Southern Six” footprint to play a game,” Sims added. “In fact, I had someone ask me that same question and I told them that it just makes no sense to do that with all of the competition that we have down here in the three largest classifications.”

Biloxi will follow almost the same script for the most part this season, facing just two non “Southern Six” opponents this season but the Indians get both at home before beginning play in Region 4-7A.
Dubose’s first band of Indians will host a pair of old Big Eight Conference rivals in Meridian on Friday, Sept. 6th and then Hattiesburg on Friday, Sept. 20th, the week before heading to War Memorial Stadium for that centenary game against PHS.
Both Pascagoula and Biloxi will then have open dates on their respective slates the next week before opening league play. The longest bus trip for the Indians will be a 60-mile journey to Lucedale to face George County sandwiched between the Meridian and Hattiesburg games.