By STAN CALDWELL/Sports Writer

and

CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HATTIESBURG — Poplarville is 0-4 all time in the Class 4A state football championship game.

However, will the rid math-up in the title tilt against perennial state power Louisville finally be the charm for veteran head coach Jay Beech and his Hornets? We’ll find out late Saturday afternoon here at M.M. Roberts Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.

““It has been four years since we have won south state.  It feels great to be back,” Beech, who has guided his squad to the state championship game five years in the past nine years, said.”They’re just a tradition-rich program with good athletes that love to play football. They’re a well-coached team, and they put a lot into their program. No doubt, we’re playing one of the best teams in the state.”

The two teams face off at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Louisville is 13-1 overall while Poplarille comes in at 12-2. Twice before Poplarville and Louisville have met for a state championship, and both times were agonizing defeats in which the Hornets led in the fourth quarter, only to see the Wildcats rally.

In 2018, in the first championships held at USM, Louisville scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the final period, and stopped the Hornets twice, once on a fourth-down, the other on a fumble.

In 2020, at Jackson, Louisville scored a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game, then scored the winning points on a PAT run for a 15-14 victory.

The challenge this time may be even more daunting. The Wildcats, who have won back-to-back state championships and 12 overall state titles, come to Hattiesburg with a 13-1 record that includes games against heavyweights such as West Point, Starkville and Noxubee County, who handed them their only defeat, 28-13 on September 27.

“It is a great honor to have the chance to make history by winning the championship three years in a row,” LHS head coach Tyrone Shorter said It has been very hard to do. This 2024 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.”

Beech knows the task will be tough as well.

“We have to move the chains consistently on offense,” he concluded. “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 Class 4A team in the state for a number of years now.  They have great players at every position. They expect to win every game.”