By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
PASCAGOULA — Pascagoula and Biloxi are on course for a historic meeting on the football field this week. And that contest is this week’s Sonic of South Mississippi Big Game of the Week.
When the Panthers host the Indians in this renewal of an old Big Eight Conference rivalry, it’ll mark the 100th meeting ever on the gridiron between the schools.
The series, which dates back to 1921, 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 two weeks.
Pascagoula stands 3-1 overall after junior tailback Amarie Jackson scored three touchdowns for the Panthers in a 21-7 win over D’Iberville last week, while Biloxi comes in off a hard-fought 12-7 loss to visiting Hattiesburg despite being the first team this season to lead the unbeaten Tigers in a game this year.

Pascagoula shook a big monkey off its back last week. In fact, after nine years the familiar nemesis had grown into a gorilla.
The Panthers knocked off the visiting warriors at War Memorial Stadium for Homecoming, bouncing back from their first loss of the season in the process. The win was the first for Pascagoula over the Warriors on the gridiron since 2015, and snapped a six-game losing streak to D’Iberville in this annual affair.
The Panthers got a stout performance from its defensive unit, as well as Jackson who had two touchdowns on short runs and one on a 64-yard scoring pass. The six game losing streak to DHS was the longest to any one opponent in Pascagoula veteran head coach Lewis Sim’s 14-year tenure at PHS.
But the injury bug hit the Panthers late in the contest, when senior standout linebacker and Louisiana Tech commit Jaylon Parnell went down with an ankle and could possibly miss most of the rest of the regular season.

Meanwhile, in Biloxi, an early season renewal of yet another old Big 8 Conference rivalry at the Biloxi Sports Complex resulted in a hard-fought five-point win for visiting Hattiesburg. The Tigers remained unbeaten on the season at 4-0, while Biloxi is now 2-2 under first-year head coach Jamey Dubose.
The Indians scored first and led throughout the first half thanks to a 3-yard scoring run from tailback Jamir Haskins That play was set up by a 30-yard strike from Indian quarterback Wyatt Pyron to wide out Tristan Haynes with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.
It also marked the first time this season that Hattiesburg trailed in a game.

But the Tigers bounced right back with a scoring drive of their own as Jaboris Jones ran five yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter. And then two minutes into the third quarter, Hattiesburg wide out Tyree Barnett took a speed sweep 48-yards through the Indian defense to provide the decisive points. Barnett is a transfer from Harrison Central.
It marked the 82nd all-time meeting between the two teams in a series that dates back to 1922.