By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
PICAYUNE — Picayune faces Hattiesburg for the 44th time on the football fields Friday night.
But never have the first 42 meetings in an all-time series that dates back 102 years meant as much as the past two.
The Maroon Tide and Tigers meet for the second consecutive season in the Class 6A South State championship game. Picayune, playing in its fifth straight South State title tilt under head coach Cody Stogner, is looking not only for its third trip to the state finals in that span but for a measure of revenge after visiting Hattiesburg pulled out an exciting 39-35 win in this round in Lee-Triplett Stadium last season.

“This is where we expect to be this time of year,’ Stogner said, after practice on Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference in the two teams from last year. Same approach, kind of the same recipe just a few different ingredients.”
Picayune comes in at 10-2 and winners of seven out of its last eight games, while Hattiesburg also stands 10-2 but on a nine game win streak.
The Tigers are under the direction of a new head coach in Kendall Vance, who came to the Pine Belt from the Georgia prep ranks after long-time HHS mentor Tony Vance retired last year after leading the Tigers to the Class 6A state championship contest last season.
After falling 43-14 to Grenada in the title tilt, Hattiesburg not only lost Vance the coach, but his soon Vance the quarterback as well when 2024 “Class 6A Mr. Football” Deuce Vance completed his eligibility and signed with South Alabama also.

““I just had to get a feel for our players,” Lacey said last week. “After our struggles early in the season, we kind of just decided this is what we’re good at and this is what we’re bad at and ever since we figured that out and started identifying the things to make our kids successful then everything changed.”
Stogner sees a lot of resemblances though in the team that beat his Maroon Tide last season.
“They are very similar, not much of a difference.” he added. “They do a few different things differently on defense.”
And Stogner should know about similar approaches, because the Maroon Tide once again employ one of the most explosive running games in the state.
Despite losing all-state standout tailback Darrell Smith from last season, junior stalwart Xavier Dennis has stepped up and right into Smith’s role and continued the ground game excellence rushing for right at 2,600 yards on 252 carries and 30 touchdowns this year in the featured role.
The winner of the Picayune-Hattiesburg game heads to Starkville the following week to face either Ridgeland or Warren Central for the Gold Ball.