By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PICAYUNE — The renewal of the Picayune-Pearl River rivalry on the football field was just more of the same thing.
The Maroon Tide won their eighth straight game against the Blue Devils in very easy fashion Friday night at Lee-Triplett Stadium 48-7 in the opening round of the Class 6A South State playoffs.
The win moves Picayune, now 10-2 overall, on to the South State semifinals next week where the Maroon Tide will host George County.

“Give our guys credit for being locked in and staying focused for four quarters,” Picayune head coach Cody Stogner said after the big win. “This all started last week when we stepped off the field after the Hancock game. We wanted to set the tone early and keep it up for four quarters and that’s what we did.”
PRC ends the season at 2-8 under first-year head coach John Feaster. The Blue Devils were in the state playoffs for the first time since 2015, which was also the last year that PRC beat Picayune.

Picayune versatile two-way standout Triston Cooper made sure that the streak would continue over their neighbors from about seven miles up the road, as he scored four first half touchdowns in guiding the Maroon Tide to a commanding 42-7 halftime lead.
After a 25-minute delay very early in the game due to a player injury, Cooper busted loose for a 30-yard scoring scamper to give the Maroon Tide a lead less than two minutes into the game that they would never relinquish at 7-0.
His backfield teammate tailback Darrell Smith then sprang loose on a 58-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 just two minutes later.

Cooper would then take it upon himself to end PRC’s season, as from his defensive end position he tipped a Blue Devil pass in the air and proceeded to pull it in and take three steps in for a 5-yard interception return for a score to make it 21-0.
Then, back on the other side of the ball, Cooper banged in from 5-yards out for yet another touchdown to make it 28-0 after Smith raced 41-yards to set up the scoring play and it was 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.

As the second stanza unfolded, Cooper extended the lead to 35-7 on another 5-yard scoring run.
And Xavier Dennis broke loose on a 41-yard touchdown dash to make it 42-7 and pretty much put the game away with four minutes to go before halftime after Edgar Cruz’s sixth extra point of the first half.
Kendall Morrison scored an a 9-yard reverse for PRC’s only score of the first half.