By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

With the start of yet another prep football season across South Mississippi last week, it’s time for our third 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.

After a big week last week, there are still some big games on tap this week, and still quite a few interesting battles ahead.

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

Here are seven games in the “Southern Six’ to keep an eye on this week:

1. St. Martin at D’Iberville (Game of the Week) — The Warriors host the Yellow Jackets in a key Region 4-7A encounter after each team experienced different results last week. D’Iberville, which is 7-0 for the first time in six years, needs a win to not only take another step towards returning to the Class 7A South State playoffs for the third straight season but also set up a showdown with Gulfport for all the marbles in Region 4-7A soon as well. And St. Martin’s postseason hopes would greatly improve as well with a win. The Warriors are 3-0 in the region race and the Yellow Jackets are 2-1.  This marks the 65th all-time metting between these two old neighborhood rivals, and the series has been completely dominated by DHS over the years. The Warriors have won seven straight over St. Martin as well as 21-of-of-the-past-22 games dating back to 2003 in taking a commanding 52-11-1 all-time lead in the annual affair.
2. Pass Christian at Moss Point — A big game for both the Pirates and Tigers takes place Friday on Dantzler Street in this key Region 8-4A Showdown. A third straight win to open league play will in all likelihood give Pass its second straight region title for the first time in program history. And Moss Point will also have a say in who wins the region crown as a win this week and then next week against Greene County, combined with a win last week over Bay High, could result in the first league title for the Tigers in five years.
3. Picayune at Hancock — After having their program record 28-game region win streak snapped late last year, the Maroon Tide got back in the win column last week, and now they head down Texas Flat Rd to face the home-standing Hawks. Both teams are coming off of wins in their respective Region4-6A openers, as Picayune continued its dominance over Pascagoula while Hancock slipped past PRC. This marks the 19th all-time meeting between the two teams in a series that the Maroon Tide has dominated over the years with a 15-3 record. The series resumed three years ago after a 19 year break, and Hancock’s last win over Picayune came 22 years ago in 2002 in a close 13-12 decision. This is the third meeting in a year, after Picayune beat HHS twice last season, 59-28 in the regular season and 59-20 in the playoffs, both times in Picayune
4. St. Patrick at St. Stanislaus — Even though you couldn’t tell it by looking at their respective records, a pair of “Catholic League” rivals each coming off of losses in Region 8-3A play last week face off Friday night with a lot on the line. Both teams come in to this annual battle with losing marks, as the Rock-A-Chaws stand 2-5 and the Fighting Irish are 2-4 in year three under former SSC head coach Nate Encrapera. This is just the seventh all-time meeting between the two teams, and the Rocks won all five prior games up until last year when a 38-21 Fighting Irish win catapulted St. Patrick into the Class 3A South State playoffs. Once again this season, the winner of this game will in all likelihood secure a berth in the upcoming Class 3A South State playoffs.
5. West Harrison at Gulfport — Just the third all-time meeting on the football field between these two teams takes place this week  in Region 4-7A play as the Hurricanes come calling on the Admirals. Both teams are coming off of key league wins last week, and Gulfport sits undefeated in the region race at 2-0 while the Hurricanes are 1-2 in the league standings. Gulfport has won the only two meetings on the field 36-0 in 2019, and 42-14 last year but WHHS is credited with a forfeit win in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
6. Pearl River Central at Gautier — A pair of teams coming off of losses in their Region 4-6A openers clash in “The Swamp” as the Gators host the Blue Devils. This is the 12th all-time meeting between the two teams the Gautier holds a commanding 7-3 lead in the series. The Blue Devils snapped a seven game losing streak in the series last year with an exciting 14-14 win in Carriere. The two teams first met in 2011, and GHS is up 7-4 in the all-time series.
7. Lumberton at Resurrection — Two teams coming off similar results in their respective Region 8-1A contests square off Thursday night in a big battle for the top spot in the league standings as the Eagles host the Panthers in Pascagoula. Resurrection sits at 2-0 in the region race, and is looking for its third straight league win at home. Lumberton, which is 1-0 in region play, has dominated RCS over the past decade, winning nine straight games in the series with an average win margin of almost 25 points per game in that stretch. The Panthers are up 11-4 all-time, but the last two wins in the series for the Eagles over the Panthers came in Jackson County. Resurrection defeated LHS 23-8 at home in the 2015 Class 1A South State championship game, perhaps the biggest football win ever in RCS program history.