By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

D’IBERVILLE — The biggest regular season game in D’Iberville in perhaps 12 years is set for this week.
On Friday night, the Warriors welcome in Gulfport in a big Region 4-7A showdown with huge implications at stake for the upcoming Class 7A South State playoff purposes.
The region title is up for grabs this week, as the Admirals lead the region race at a perfect 4-0, while D’Iberville is tied for second in the league standings with Ocean Springs at 3-1.

The Greyhounds fell to Gulfport 41-28, while OSHS beat the Warriors 42-21.
Excluding the DHS-GHS game this week, in all likelihood these three teams that have all already clinched state playoff berths finish out the regular season against the trio of teams in Region 4-7A that will miss the postseason.
Gulfport finishes out the regular season at home against hap-less Harrison Central on Thursday, Nov. 6th, while OSHS hosts HCHS this week and faces St. Martin to end the regular season. D’Iberville ends the season at home against Biloxi.
Assuming that all three of the teams atop the league standings take care of business, then things become interesting if D’Iberville can snap a three game losing streak to Gulfport this week in a convincing manner.
Gulfport secures the top seed in the region with a win or even a loss as long as its by no more than 11 points. A DHS win by 12 points or more throws all three teams into a tangled up mess atop the region race that would come down to the fifth step in the tie-breaking formula.
That step is “Fewest points allowed in all region games (No maximum points)”.

Going into this week, Gulfport leads that category at 42, with D’Iberville in second at 59 and OSHS last at 83. Of course, these numbers will continue to develop over the next tw0 weeks as well.
It’s the biggest game at Warrior Stadium since DHS also hosted Gulfport on Oct. 25th, 2012 in a game that also decided the region title. D’iberville pulled that one out 33-24, and both teams finished 6-1 in the league standings. But DHS got the one seed and the Admirals were the two seed because of the outcome of that contest.
Ocean Springs has won four straight region titles, and D’Iberville won it in 2020 thanks to a 27-24 road win over the Greyhounds that season.
Gulfport hasn’t won a region title in six years, and that came thanks to 35-28 road win over the Warriors.