By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

With the current prep football season turning 10 weeks old this week across South Mississippi, it’s time for our 10th installment of “A Look Ahead” here at SouthMiss6 Sports.

“A Look Ahead” has been a part of the journalistic fabric of prep football across the “Southern Six” for most of the past three decades. Each week of the season on Monday, we’ll take a look at the action set to kick off in that particular week all across this region.

Week nine in the “Southern Six” this season saw quite a bit of separation in the respective region races, and we expect more of the same to continue this week on football fields all across the state.

Here are “7 games in the Southern 6” to keep an eye on this week:

1. Gulfport at D’Iberville (Game of the Week) — The Region 4-7A title in all likelihood will be decided at some point Friday night as DHS hosts the Admirals in a battle for the top spot. Gulfport is taking aim on its first league crown in six years, and comes in sitting atop the region race with a perfect 4-0 mark, while D’Iberville sits in a tie with Ocean Springs in the second slot each at 3-1. Even though this all-time series dates back 37 years to 1988, this is just the 17th meeting on the football field between the two teams. Gulfport has a commanding 11-6 lead, and the Admirals have won three straight and six out of the last eight games over DHS. D’Iberville is looking for its first region title in five years.
2. Pascagoula at Hancock — While neither of these teams are fighting for a region title, this is still a key contest in Region 4-6A play this week as the Panthers head to Brett Favre field to take on the home-standing Hawks. Both teams are coming off important wins in league play last week, as PHS ripped PRC 42-0 and HHS nipped Gautier 28-27. The two teams are knotted up in second place in the Region race, each sporting 2-1 marks behind 3-0 Picayune. And both combined losses for Pascagoula and Hancock in league play came at the hands of the Maroon Tide. These two teams never met on the football field until 20 years ago in 2005, and since then the Panthers own a 9-3 advantage in 12 meetings over the past two decades including wins in the past four seasons over HHS. The team that takes this one will in all likelihood secure the second seed and the home-field advantage in the opening round of the upcoming Class 6A South State playoffs as well.
3. Picayune at Gautier — And speaking of perennial state power Picayune, the Maroon Tide go in search of their 28th straight region win this week on the road at Vaughan-Wallace Stadium against the Gators. Picayune is a perfect 3-0 in Region 4-6A, and the Maroon Tide is also 15-0 all-time against Gautier. This is the first meeting in three years for the two teams, when they played twice in 2022. If the Gators are gonna snap that win-less streak, there’s no better time to do so than this week as Gautier is on the verge of falling out of state playoff contention at 1-2 in league play after two straight losses by a combined total of four points.
4. Stone at Northeast Jones — As the old crow flies, the distance between Stone High and Northeast Jones is about 67 miles or about an hour by car. Or, almost 54 years it seems. When the Tomcats travel to Tiger Stadium in Laurel on Halloween Night this week, it will mark the first regular season meeting on the football field between Stone and NEJ since Sept. 24th, 1971, or 54 years and one month. The two teams have met in the South State playoffs more recently, as in 27 years ago, on Nov. 13th, 1998, a 6-0 home win for the Tigers. The last home game against NEJ was also in the state playoffs 45 years ago, in round one of the 1980 postseason, which the Tigers also won 21-14. In fact, Stone and Stone County is 0-5 all-time on the gridiron against NEJ. But a first-ever win by Stone over NEJ this week will give the Tomcats the Region 4-5A title.
5. West Harrison and Biloxi — Just the third meeting all time and the first in five years between these two teams on the football field is set for Friday night in what could turn into an important Region 4-7A battle. Currently, the Hurricanes sit solidly as the fourth seed in the region race, which of course is the cut off line for qualifying for the state playoffs. A win by West Harrison would secure the first-ever playoff berth in program history for the Hurricanes. The Indians need a win this week as well as a win next week over D’Iberville in order to not miss the postseason for the first time since 2021.
6. East Central at Vancleave — A game that will be talked about in duck blinds and deer stands all across Jackson County for the next year goes down in Vancleave Halloween night as the Bulldogs host the longtime arch-rival Hornets. Both teams are in dire need of a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, as VHS is 1-2 in Region 4-5A and ECHS win-less at 0-3. Vancleave is looking for its fourth straight trip to the postseason and seventh in the past eight years, while East Central has missed the playoffs the past two seasons. This marks the 65th edition of this annual affair, and the overall series has been pretty close with the Bulldogs up 33-31 after the Hornets pulled out a 28-26 win last year.
7. Thursday Night football — The regular season ends for teams in the four lower classifications this week, and those finales come a day early on Thursday as Bay High hosts Pass Christian, St. Stanislaus travels to West Marion and Stringer heads to Resurrection. St. Patrick wrapped up its regular season last week, and awaits the opening round of the state playoffs next week.