By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

The first meeting of the football field in a decade between perennial state power Picayune and Petal is this week’s “Sonic of South Mississippi Big Game of the Week”.
This marks the fifth opponent from Class 7A in six games this season that the Maroon Tide has faced, as they take a road trip north to Forrest County to face the home-standing and suddenly surging Panthers.
Petal stands 4-1 overall and is on a four game win streak as it awaits the arrival of the Maroon Tide for the first time in 11 years, which sits 3-2.
This marks the first meeting between the two teams in 10 years, since home-standing Picayune won 40-35 in 2014. It’s the first trip to Petal for Picayune since a wild 61-58 loss in 2013. That season, the Maroon Tide went on to win 12 of their last 13 games and captured the Class 5A state title.

It marks the second straight road trip for Picayune, after it bounced back from a home loss to Gulfport with a strong outing against home-standing Ocean Springs to pull out an exciting 38-35 win at Greyhound Stadium last week in the first road outing of the year for head coach Cody Stogner’s squad after opening the season with four straight home games.
Picayune senior standout tailback, a Louisiana-Lafayette commit, ran for almost 300 yards and four touchdowns in propelling Picayune to the win, which dropped Ocean Spring to 1-4. It marks the first 1-4 start to a season for the Greyhounds since 2002, when they finished 1-9 overall.

“We showed a lot of MTXE (Mental Toughness Extra Effort) tonight, players and coaches.,” Stogner said Friday night after the big win. “We got behind but these guys made a promise to me that they were going to fight for every second of the 48 minutes and they did! I’m so proud of the guys in maroon and white!”
Smith has become yet another bell cow rushing threat for Picayune this season as he has recorded over 1,000 yards already on the ground this season in just five games as he sits at 1,037 rushing yards with 10 touchdowns on the ground and has 1,249 all-purpose yards plus one kickoff return for a score.
Meanwhile veteran head coach Marcus Boyles returned to lead Petal this season after spending last year at Meridian, and has his Panthers on a four game losing streak after a close season-opening 7-3 loss to arch-rival Hattiesburg. This week, Petal looks to continue its recent string of success with its fourth game against foes from the “Southern Six” in the past five games.

In a bit of an oddity this season, The Panthers will play a trio of Region 4-6 foes this season after adding this game against Picayune over the Summer.
Petal has beaten St. Martin 41-0, Hancock 49-7 and Long Beach last week 52-14 leading up to this week.
It’ll mark the first time in 14 years, since the 2010 season, that Petal has played as many as four teams from the “Southern Six” in the regular season. That came in 2010, when the Panthers were members of Region 4-6A for the fourth and final season along with seven “Southern Six” squads in Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, George County, Ocean Springs, Harrison Central and Hancock.
Cory Jackson leads the Petal defense with a pair of interceptions. The Panther defensive unit is averaging giving up just nine points per game through five games so far this season.

Sonic Drive-In of South Mississippi has always been a longtime supporter of student/athletes in South Mississippi and all across the Southeast.