By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

OCEAN SPRINGS — The annual region showdown between Ocean Springs and Gulfport Friday night is this week’s “Vertical Raise Game of the Week” for SouthMiss6 Sports.

Each week during the prep football season, SouthMiss6 Sports will feature a “GOTW” sponsored by Vertical Raise, the premier online fundraising platform for athletic teams and associated clubs and supporters of all ages.

For the past several seasons, this battle has been for region supremacy whether it was in Region 4-7A or Region 4-6A, and in the end it may be for all the marbles as well. However, this season the Greyhounds and Admirals meet much earlier in the league schedule than they have in the past three decades.

Since the 1993 season, when the two teams first joined the same region, these two teams have always played the next-to-last week of the regular season. However, this year, the teams will meet in the second week of league play.

“This year has a different feel to it playing Gulfport this early in region play,” OSHS head coach Jake Bramlett said. “Both teams are still establishing identities. Where in the past, everybody knew who they were when this game was being played.”

Ocean Springs comes in on a school record 25 game region win streak, that started at the end of the 2020 season, under then and now current GHS head coach Blake Pennock. In fact, that number is also the longest all-time win streak for any team in league play that has ever competed in the region that represents the largest classification in the “Southern Six”.

After a 31-6 win over Biloxi last week, the Greyhounds are now 11-0 in league play under Bramlett after hetook over for Pennock before the 2023 season.

The Greyhounds are 1-0 in the region race this year, while this is the first league game of the season for the Admirals who are coming off of an equally impressive performance in a 53-13 pounding of Pascagoula last week.

“Gulfport seems to have found find their stride offensively last week and they have been good defensively week in and week out,” Bramlett added. “We feel good about where our team is right now, but we know we have a lot to work on in region play to prepare ourselves for the playoffs. This will be a great test against a very well-coached team with a lot of talent. I expect them to be around at the end of the year, winning ball games in postseason play.”

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We look forward to partnering with you to elevate your organization to its full potential! Please contact your local fundraising rep Ricky Cunningham at 228-263-4755 for more information.