By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

As the prep football season across South Mississippi prepares for a full on slaught of prep football playoff action, it’s time for our 11th installment of “Friday Night Rewind” here at SouthMiss6 Sports.

“Friday Night Rewind” has been a part of the journalistic fabric of prep football across the “Southern Six” for most of the past three decades. Each week of the season on Sunday we’ll take a look back at the action that took place all across this region the previous week.

Here are seven things we noticed in the “Southern 6” Friday night:

1. Pascagoula Pride — In a game billed as a battle between two of the top quarterbacks in the state, it was a running back who provided the biggest plays. Pascagoula junior tailback Amarie Jackson accounted for three touchdowns including two big one ones in key situations in leading the visiting Panthers to a resounding 49-13 win over George County in a big Region 4-6A showdown at Gill-Martin Stadium Friday night. With the win, Jackson assured that his Panther teammates one grade ahead of him they would get to play at least one game in the state playoffs at home in War Memorial Stadium before they wrapped up their playing careers in a month or so. The decision allows the Panthers to host an opening round game in the upcoming Class 6 South State Playoffs for the first time since 2020. With Pascagoula holding just a 14-7 lead in the waning moments of the first half, Jackson took in a short sky kick and sprinted untouched down the home team sidelines to give his Panthers a 21-7 lead at halftime. Then, on the first possession of the second half, Jackson raced 24-yards on a scoring scamper to extend the PHS advantage to 28-7.
2. Picayune Pride — The Picayune Maroon Tide, closed out the regular season with a 35-17 win over home-standing Hancock in Region 4-6A play Thursday at Brett Favre Field. The win extended head coach Cody Stogner’s crew to a school record 24 straight region wins and the Maroon Tide have capured four straight region crowns. Picayune heads into the upcoming Class 6 South State playoffs with a 9-2 overall mark and as the top seed in the loop, while the Hawks also head into the postseason and are the fouth seed in Region 4-6A for the second straight season as HHS sits at 3-8 overall.
3. Greyhound Growl — Ocean Springs wrapped up yet another region title Thursday night with a comfortable 42-15 win over home-standing St. Martin. The win moved the Greyhounds to 5-0 in the region race as OSHS captured its 24th straight win in league play, a school record as well as the fourth straight region crown. Ocean Springs, now 6-4 overall, will host Northwest Rankin in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs next Friday. The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, dropped their 22nd consecutive region loss and finish the season at 3-7. St. Martin is 0-17 in league play under third year head coach Ty Smith.
4. Big Red — Home-standing Biloxi wrapped up its first regular season under the guidance of new head coach Jamey Dubose in exciting and successful fashion Thursday night. The Indians tallied 14 unanswered points in a span of one minute and 10 seconds in the final two minutes of the game to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a spine tingling 24-23 win over neighboring rival D’Iberville in Region 4-7A play. The win moves Biloxi to 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the region race and gives the Indians the number three seed in the league standings in the upcoming Class 7A South State playoffs. The Warriors fall to the fourth seed with a 2-3 region mark and also sit at 5-5 overall. Indian senior quarterback Wyatt Pyron found classmate and wide out Tristan Haynes on three scoring strikes, including a a 25-yard touchdown toss with just over a minute left.
5. Hornet streak — Poplarville’s playoff streak is still alive. But just barely. The home-standing Hornets took advantage of a pair of botched extra point attempts by Mendenhall Friday night and used a late rally fueled by quarterback Sydney Blackmon in pulling out a thrilling 27-26 win over the Tigers.The win marked the 11th straight for Poplarville in the opening round of the Class 4A South State playoffs.
6. Region 4-5A — The final standings are in in what turned out to be a weird and wild race in Region 4-5A. Gautier is the top seed after winning its first region title in 16 years. The Gators finished up league play 5-0 with a big 42-6 win over visiting Laurel Thursday night. It marked the first win ever for GHS over Laurel in football. Stone clipped visiting East Central Thursday night 24-6 to claim the second seed in the Region race and also homefield advantage in the opening round of the state playoffs next week as well. Wayne County came alive in the final two weeks of the regular season to clinch the third seed with a paair of wins including a 56-34 thumping of visiting Vancleave Thursday night. Despite the defeat, Vancleave hung on to the fourth seed in the region race after dropping each of its final two regular season games to finish at 2-3 in the loop.
7. Region 8-4A — The exciting one point win for Poplarville was the only success found by the quartet of teams from Region 8-4A Friday night. The prep football season came to an end for two other “Southern Six” squads on the road Friday night in the opening round of the state playoffs. In Class 4A, Pass Christian fell to Northeast Jones 31-14 and Forest thumped Bay High 49-7. The biggest shocker, however, came in Leakesville where Quitman came in and knocked off top seed Greene County 34-28.