By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HATTIESBURG — It’s that time of the year again for the Poplarville football team.
The Hornets just hope this time their final game of the season turns out differently.
Poplarville faces perennial state power Louisville Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m., here at M.M. Roberts Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in the Class 4A state championship contest.
The Hornets are 12-2 coming into the title tilt, while the Wildcats sit at an impressive 13-1.
This marks the fifth state championship appearance for PHS in the past nine seasons, but the Hornets and head coach Jay Beech are still in search of their first-ever Gold Ball.

“It has been four years since we have won south state,” Beech said, earlier this week. “It feels great to be back. At one point in the middle of the season, we had 14 kids who were unavailable to play. We have all but one of those back now. We have to move the chains consistently on offense.  We have to control the time of possession.  We cannot have three and outs.  We need to tackle well and force a few turnovers and not give up big returns on special teams. Louisville has been the top 4A team in the state for a number of years now. They have great players at every position. They expect to win every game.”
The Wildcats own 12 state championships dating back to 1985. Louisville is the defending two-time Class 4A Class 4A state champion, and the Wildcats have won three of the past four Gold Balls in that classification including a 15-14 decision over Poplarville four years ago.

This is the third all-time meeting between the two teams and the prior two have also come in the state title tilt as LHS also nipped Poplarville in 2018 20-15 in a decision that started a current streak of four state titles in the past six seasons for the Wildcats.
“It is a great honor to have the chance to make history by winning the championship three years in a row,” veteran Louisville head coach Tyrone Shorter said. “It has been very hard to do. This senior class has only lost two games since being in high school. We talk about it as a program all the time that “pressure is a privilege” and we know we will get Poplarville’s best game.”

First up
That Poplarville-Louisville contest will be the sixth of seven state championship games on the schedule this week.
First up, however, is the Class 3A state title game Thursday afternon followed by the Class 7A state championship contest Thursday night at 7:30 p.m., between Brandon and Tupelo.

This contest marks the 17th straight season that a prep football team from the “Southern Six” has not qualified for the title tilt in the largest classification in the state.
In the past two decades, only two teams from the “Southern Six” have even qualified for the state championship in the largest classification game with the last being George County in Class 5A in 2007 and before that Ocean Springs in the same class in 2004.
Both the Rebels and Greyhounds fell to then perennial state power South Panola in the title tilt.

In fact, no team from the “Southern Six” ever played for a Class 6A state title in the 15 years it was the largest classification and now for the second straight year in the newest Class 7A no squad has qualified either.
The last time a team from the “Southern Six” won a state title in the largest classification in the state came 24 years ago in 2000 when Moss Point beat Clinton in Class 5A.
The once mighty Tigers, who also won state championships in1991, 1996 and 1997, then followed that win 24 years ago up with another trip to the Class 5A state finals the next year but lost to Starkville and MPHS alumnus Bill Lee in 2001.