By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

D’IBERVILLE — On a cool, crisp and clear All Hallows Eve, Gulfport won its first region football title in six years Friday night.
The visiting Admirals led by as much as 17 points late in the fourth period and managed to hold off a scrappy D’Iberville team 38-35 in Region 4-7A play at Warrior Stadium. The win secures the league crown for Gulfport, which moved to 5-0 in the region race and 7-2 overall. D’Iberville is 7-2 also overall and drops to 3-2 in league play and will finish as the third seed in the loop.

The region title is the first for the Admirals since the 2019 season, when a 35-28 win for GHS also here in D’Iberville also sealed the deal back then.
Gulfport quarterback Parker Nettles hit Admiral senior standout running back Cooper Crosby with a 12-yard touchdown pass with just over three minutes to play that put put the game out of reach at 38-21.
Crosby scored four touchdowns and Nettles accounted for three scores, and the visitors needed all of it to hold off a late rally by DHS.

“Proud of our players and coaches and their resilience they have shown all year,” Gulfport third-year head coach Blake Pennock said, “We have had to go on the road and win some big games to get a region title. They earned it with a hard fought win tonight.”

Gulfport wasted no time in taking a lead it would never relinquish right off the bat.
Crosby plunged in from 1-yard out to open the scoring at 7-0. The short touchdown run was set up thanks to a 34-yard halfback pass from Crosby to Javaious Hales that put the ball at the Warrior one.
The Admirals set sail to another score on their next possession, when Nettles hit Crosby looping out of the backfield on a 5-yard touchdown toss to make it 14-0 at the end of the opening period.
The teams swapped scores in the second stanza. Gulfport got a 27-yard field goal from Carter Platt to make it 17-0 at the 6:29 mark.
But the Warriors answered when quarterback Jordan Wally scrambled 75-yards through almost the entire GHS defense to get his team on the scoreboard and make it 17-7 just :28 seconds later.
Gulfport responded with 36-yard scoring strike from Nettles to Hales to push the lead back to 17 points at 24-7 with 5:03 to go before halftime.

Walley then hit Jaylan Johnson wide open down the middle with a 63-yard completion to the GHS three. Chan Harvey covered that distance to make it 24-14 at the 2:57 mark.
Crosby’s 3-yard scoring jaunt with just over :30 seconds to play capped Gulfport’s seventh trip into the red zone in the first half and sent the two teams into intermission at 31-14.
The home team produced the only score of the third frame when tight end Malakai Knight took a reverse 9-yards for a touchdown for DHS to cut the deficit to 31-21.

After Crosby’s fourth touchdown of the night, Walley answered with a pair of short scoring runs in the final two minutes to cut the deficit to the final count with just under a minute to play.

But Gulfport recovered the ensuing on-sides kick off to clinch the win.