By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PICAYUNE — The renewal of a three decade neighborhood rivalry between Picayune and Pearl River Central is the “Sonic Drive In of South Mississippi Big Game of he Week” this week.
The two schools sit a bit less than seven miles apart on Highway 11 but the two football teams didn’t meet on the football field for the first time until 1991. This marks the 33rd all-time meeting in the series, and the Maroon Tide has dominated the all-time series 26-6.

“Making it to the playoffs means than you can still achieve your ultimate goal you set out for back in spring time,” fifth year Picayune head coach Cody Stogner said. “It’s win or go home so every rep everyday matters and we have to be perfect in every aspect of the game. It’s going to be a great atmosphere with both communities so close and I look for it to be a really good high school football game.”
This is the first meeting in almost 26 months between the longtime and neighboring rivals and it takes place at Lee-Triplett Stadium Friday night as this old time rivalry is renewed. Picayune has won seven straight over the Blue Devils with the last PRC win coming in the regular season finale in 2015 also in Picayune.

The Maroon Tide is the top seed from Region 4-6A and just won their fourth straight league title, while PRC is the fourth seed from Region 3-6A and is returning to the state playoffs for the first time since that same 2015 season. The two teams have met in the playoffs twice before, in 2014 and 2011.
Picayune is 9-2 overall as it looks for its third state championship in the past four seasons, while the Blue Devils are 2-7 overall.
” Lot of family connections for both sides,” Stogner added. “My wife and her family went there as well as my two oldest kids who played sports there, so yeah it’s gonna be an interesting week to say the least. But we are all looking forward to Friday night getting here.”

This marks the seventh time in the past decade that a pair of teams from the “Southern Six” have faced off in the opening round of the South State playoffs and these two teams are involved in almost half of those match-ups.
This, however, marks the first time in those scenarios where a pair of former Maroon Tide standouts are facing off as Stogner leads his alma mater up against PRC which is in its first year under the direction of John Feaster.
The two were teammates for one season and they also spent time as assistant coaches on the Maroon Tide staff under legendary head coach Dodd Lee.

“He was two years older than me so I looked up to him when we played together,” Stogner concluded. “He was a senior when I was a sophomore. It wasn’t fun playing scout team center and having to try to block him Monday through Wednesday but it made me a better player. We also coached together under Coach Lee and we had a great relationship because even though we were working together I was able to still learn things from him.”