By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI —Longtime arch-rivals Biloxi and Gulfport meet for the 102nd time this week Thursday night, and the annual affair between the Indians and Admirals is one of two “Sonic of South Mississippi Big Games of the week” this week.
Action in the “Southern Six” gets started a day early in this Region 4-7A opener for both teams at The Biloxi Sports Complex. And both teams are coming off of an open date last week, as Gulfport stands 3-2 while Biloxi sits at 2-3 coming into this contest.

Each team is also looking to bounce back from lopsided losses in their previous outings, as visiting Brandon bombed the Admirals 42-0 and home-standing Pascagoula slapped the Indians 44-3.
Gulfport leads the all-time series 62-35-4, and the Admirals have dominated Biloxi as well of late winning three straight and 11-of-the-past-12 outings also. The Indians haven’t managed a win at home over GHS since a 20-17 win sin 2011, as the Admirals have sailed out of Biloxi Bay with five straight road wins in the series.

This will mark first-year Biloxi head coach Jamey Dubose’s first time to be a part of this historic rivalry. Dubose has a championship pedigree. He comes to Mississippi after many years in the Alabama prep football ranks, where he led Prattville to a pair of state titles as head coach in both 2008 and 2011, and he guided Central-Phenix City to the 2018 Class 7A state title.
This is his first coaching job in Mississippi.

“I was fortunate enough in Alabama to surround myself with some excellent players and coaches,” Dubose said, in a recent interview. “I feel like what we do as a program will fit in here at Biloxi. It’s similar to some of my previous stops.”
It has been 13 years since the Biloxi High football team won a state playoff game. And the Indians have won just two postseason games in the past 23 years and have lost their last seven playoff contests. Dubose hopes to snap that streak this season, and a big win this week in this long-running rivalry would go a long way in helping the Indians secure a spot in the upcoming Class 7A South State playoffs which begin in a little over five weeks.

For Gulfport second-year head coach Blake Pennock, this is his second taste of one of the longest-standing and continual rivalries in the state of Mississippi after his Admirals pulled out a 42-0 dominating win over Biloxi last season.

Last year’s game marked the first time in 42 years that these perennial arch-rivals did not close out the regular season against one another. Instead, just like this season, the Indians and Admirals faced off in the first-ever Region 4-7A game and this year they will meet in the first league game of the season as well. This year marks the first time since the 1980-1981 seasons that the two teams won’t play one another in the regular season finale in back-to-back years.