By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

A quartet of “Southern Six” standout prep products took advantage of the second National Football Signing Day dates to ink deals close to home last week and land in Hattiesburg

In D’Iberville, the Warriors had a pair of stalwart defenders sign with Southern Miss.

Linebacker Caleb Triplett propelled his postseason success into a deal with the Golden Eagles.

Despite missing half of senior year due to injury, he still made a big enough impact to be selected to play in the prestigious Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Football Classic and was selected the state’s Most Valuable Player, finishing with a blocked punt, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

He also played in Navy All-American Game, and was a first-team Mississippi Association of Coaches Class 7A All-State pick as he registered 56 tackles (26 solo) with eight for loss last season.

Also, D’Iberville defensive end K.J. Washington was a driving force on that DHS defense that led the Warriors to a Class 7A South State berth last season.

He finished with 48 tackles, including 13 sacks and 20 tackles for loss and dded 22 quarterback hurries and two pass breakups in his final campaign with the Warriors.

Yet another Warrior defender ended up in The Hub City as well.

Caleb Williams in transferring from Faulkner University to Southern Miss. The defensive back appeared in all 10 games in hios second year at Faulkner last season and was named second team All-Mid South Conference, as he registered egistered 60 tackles (31 solos) with 2.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions, eight pass breakups and one fumble recovery He also returned eight punts for 87 yards, including one for a touchdown.

He transferred to Faulkner after two years at Pearl River Community College.

Meanwhile, former Pascagoula defensive wrecking ball Jeffrey Rush signed with Southern Miss also after spending the past two years at Ole Miss.

Rush, an end, saw action in four games for the Rebels last year, including the CFP national semifinal against Miami.

He appeared in one game for the Rebels aas a true freshman and was redshirted.

Rush was rated as four-star prospect by ESPN coming out of PHS.