By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
WIGGINS — Stone was looking for its first 2-0 start to a season in eight years Friday night as Poplarville came calling.
The Tomcats are still looking.
The Hornets snatched victory from the jaws of defeat here at A.L. May Stadium on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, overcoming a 21-7 first half deficit to pull out a 22-21 win in the final minutes.
The decision evens the defending Class 4A state champions’ record up at 1-1 in the new season, while dropping Stone to even at 1-1 as well.

The Tomcats got a 15-yard touchdown run from running back turned quarterback Ayden Green as well as a 61-yard scoring scamper by Amarion Fairley in the first nine minutes of the game to jump ahead 14-0.
The teams traded scores in the second stanza, as Poplarville cut the deficit in half at 14-7 on a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Ty Keys. But Stone immediately responded when Daylan Collins raced 57-yards on a speed sweep to make it 21-7 Tomcats at halftime.
But the Poplarville defense would stand up strong in the second half, and Stone would never score again and gain just one first down in the final two quarters.

Hornet quarterback Ian Magee kept on a 2-yard scoring sneak to make it 21-14 with 3:02 left in the third frame.
And then, almost 10 minutes later, Poplarville linebacker Ayden Harmon and defensive back Cole Henry sacked Green for a 3-yard loss on a fourth-and-one situation at the Hornet 28-yard line resulting in PHS taking over on downs.
Minutes later, Magee kept to the 3 with just under three minutes left on a fourth-and-one situation from the Tomcat five.
Keys covered that distance on the next play to make it 21-20, and he then took a direct snap and waltzed in untouched wide right for the all-important two-point conversion to give the Hornets their first lead and only lead of the night.

Keys finished the night with 22 carries for 157 yards and two scores.
Green, who had to take over as a “wildcat” style signal-caller after Stone stating quarterback Xander Howard was injured early in the game, did yeoman’s work, but PHS did hold him below 100 yards rushing after he ran for 272 last week in a win over Hancock.