By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

No other pair of prep football teams in South Mississippi have won more games combined over the past five seasons than Picayune and Ocean Springs.

The Maroon Tide and Greyhounds have teamed up to take home 108 wins in that time span.

However, this week, both squads are looking for the first victory of the new season as week two kicks off.

Picayune suffered its first home shutout in 32 years last week, when defending Class 7A state champion Gulfport sailed out of Lee-Triplett Stadium with a convincing 35-0 decision Friday night.

The night before, visiting Meridian thumped OSHS 47-9 which marked the largest loss for the Greyhounds since a 42-0 loss on the road at Gulfport 25 years ago. It marked the biggest home loss for OSHS since a 58-13 decision for Biloxi in that same 2001 season.

Unfortunately for both Picayune and Ocean Springs, the road to win one doesn’t get any easier Friday night, as the Maroon Tide hosts perennial private school power Jackson Academy while the Greyhounds travel to Petal.

“Petal is a really good team,” fourth-year OSHS head coach Jake Bramlett said. “A lot of returners coming back offensively, and two of the top tailbacks in the state. They lost a good bit on defense, but returned three really good players in their two outside linebackers and a defensive end. They beat a very good Hattiesburg team last week after having a first half very similar to ours. They had a lot of self-inflicted early season mistakes but were able to overcome them and fight back in the second half.”

The Panthers overcame a 28-14 second half deficit to knock off home-standing Hattiesburg last week. Ocean Springs is looking to avoid its second 0-2 start in three seasons.

Meanwhile, in Picayune, seventh-year Maroon Tide head coach Cody Stogner and his team look to avoid their first 0-2 start in 10 years against JA, which is 2-1 so far this year.

Stogner, who guided his alma mater to back-to-back Class 5A state titles in 2021 and 2022, was forced to fill its second playing date after a one year deal with Slidell High expired after the end of last season.

So, instead of traveling about 25 minutes south down 1-59 into Louisiana after hosting GHS in week one, the Maroon Tide will instead head a few hours north to the state capital.

The contest will mark the first game ever for Picayune against a member of the private school association in the state on the football field.

“It doesn’t get any easier this week,” Stogner said. “JA is a really good, well-coached football team. I’m looking to see if we can correct our mistakes from last week and give great effort for the full 48 minutes.”

The Raiders captured the MAIS Div 1-Class 4A state title last season after closing the season on a seven game win streak with a 50-14 thumping of Hartfield Academy in the title tilt of the largest private school classification.

Jackson Academy has won 10 total state titles, including eight this century.