By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

FOREST — Poplarville is headed back to the Class 4A state championship game.
The Hornets went on the road Friday night and took down home-standing Forest in an exciting 24-21 decision in the Class 4A South State championship game. The win, in what was the eighth appearance in the South State title tilt in the last nine years under veteran head coach Jay Beech for PHS, moves the Hornets to 12-2 overall and sends PHS to its fourth overall state title game as well since 2016.
“They have a great football team and we played as hard as we possibly could and we’re able to come out with the win,” Beech said. “It’s a storybook season, a great season for us and it’s still going we’ll just have to see what happens next week.”

Forest finishes the season at 12-2, after just the second meeting all-time between the two teams, and the first in 43 years since a 36-12 thumping by the Bearcats in 1981 which came in the second round of the state playoffs in the inaugural season when a state-wide playoff system was implemented in Mississippi.
The teams went to halftime knotted up at 14-14, in what was basically a battle between Poplarville running back Ty Keys and Forest quarterback Jamarius Lofton.
Keys put PHS up 7-0 on the first drive of the game for the Hornets with a 3-yard touchdown plunge.
Lofton responded with a 7-yard scoring scamper of his own just before the end of the end of the first period to tie things up at 7-7.
Lofton then hooked up with Tydarrius McGill on a 9-yard touchdown toss mid-way through the second stanza as the Bearcats took their first and only lead of the night at 14-7.

But Poplarville’s Ayden Harmon came up with one of the biggest plays of the game when he blocked a Forest punt with just over two minutes to play before intermission and the Hornets recovered deep in FHS territory.
Keys made the big play count as he ended the quarter with his second 3-yard scoring dash of the half and the teams went to intermission tied up at 14-14 after the Poplarville point-after from placekicker Jackson Schultz.
Poplarville continued to turn the tide in its favor in the third frame with the only score of that period on a 2-yard touchdown run by running back Nick Miller at the 2:37 mark to give the Hornets a lead they would never relinquish at 21-14 entering the final frame.
Schultz added a 22-yard field goal with just under five minutes to play to extend the PHS lead to double digits at 24-14.

Forest responded with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Lofton with 2:36 left in the game, but it was too little too late for the Bearcats.
Keys converted a third and six situation with a 12-yard run for a first down with just under two minutes left as the Hornets ran out the clock.
Keys, who missed almost all of the regular season with an injury, finished with 165 yards rushing in the winning effort.

Poplarville, which is still in search of the first football state championship in program history, will now face perennial state power Louisville next Saturday afternoon for the Class 4A state championship in Hattiesburg at M.M. Roberts Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi at 3:30 p.m.
The Wildcats, in search of their third straight state title, thumped home-standing West Lauderdale 40-6 Friday night.
Louisville is in its 13th all-time state championship game. The Wildcats have never lost in the state championship round.
Louisville slipped past Poplarville in the 2020 Class 4A state championship contest 15-14. The Wildcats also beat the Hornets 25-20 for the 2018 state championship.