By Maurice Singleton/Sports Writer

PASS CHRISTIAN — The Pass High Pirates (11-1) scored touchdowns on seven of their first eight possessions of the first half against the Forest Bearcats (5-5) on Friday night.

And that offensive success continued to the second half as they added two more touchdowns to get the 62-33 win in the first round of the Class 4A State playoffs.

The only thing that slowed the Pirates’ offense was a fumble on the Bearcats first kickoff, too little time with four seconds left on the first half clock when they started their ninth possession of the first half and a running clock that started late in the third quarter.

“It was hitting on all cylinders tonight,” said Pass High coach Jeff Stockstill. “And this is the right time of the year to be doing that. We talked about that all week. I’ve coached against Forest before in the past. I knew they were going to have some size and speed. It was important to get an early lead, steal a couple of possessions on special teams, and it worked out good for us.

“We don’t have the defensive depth just to play regular football four quarters,” said Stockstill. “We’ve got to steal some possessions somewhere. We work on trick plays and special teams to try to steal possessions and get every opportunity we can to get the ball in Paris’s hand.”

The Pirates won the toss and deferred, but their offense went to work quickly, as they recovered the onside kick on the game’s first play at the Bearcats 39-yard line. Three plays later the Pirates were on the scoreboard with a 19-yard completion from the aforementioned Paris Trivillion to Mario Burks with 11:37 showing on the first quarter clock.

The Pirates went with the onside kick again, but this time Forest would recover and put together a 9-play scoring drive to tie the game at 7-7.

Pass would fumble the ensuing kickoff, but they would get the ball back four snaps later as Kaiden Mooney would make a diving play on a tipped ball to record an interception. The Pirates would capitalize with a 6-play drive that showcased Trivillion’s arm on pass completions of 21, 9, and 32 yards. He would cap the drive with a 3-yard scoring run, which started a run of six consecutive possessions that resulted in touchdowns.

Trivillion would cap the next possession with an 8-yard carry for a score to put the Pirates up 21-7. The 48-yard drive was highlighted by a 16-yard pass play from Trivillion to Burks and a 24-yard carry by Brandon Laneaux.

The Pirates recovered their second onside kick of the night on the ensuing kickoff, and four plays later Trivillion connected with Burks for a 9-yard pass play to give the Pirates a 28-7 lead on the first play of the second quarter. He would connect with Burks on the next possession for a 5-yard scoring pass with just over six minutes left on the second quarter clock.

Less than a minute later, after the defense recovered a Forest fumble, Cecil Lizana would score on a 3-yard carry, which gave the Pirates a 41-7 lead.
Forest would answer with a 13-play drive, capped by a 20-yard pass play for a touchdown with 1:34 left on the second quarter clock. The Pirates responded with a 3-play scoring drive with Trivillion breaking down field for a 35-yard gain, then completing passes of 13 and 16 yards, the latter to Laneaux for the score to give Pass a 47-14 lead.

The second half was much of the same for the Pirates as they scored on their first two possessions. Trivillion connected with Burks on the second and third plays of the drive for gains of 31 and 8 yards, before two quarterback keepers of 21 and ten yards, the latter for the score to go up 55-20 with 10:32 left on the third quarter clock.

Trivillion connected with Laneaux for 25 yards and Douglas White broke into the Bearcats secondary for a 26-yard carry to the Bearcats’ 3-yard line before Lizana closed out the game’s scoring from there.

The Pirates host the Columbia Wildcats in Pass Christian next Friday night in the second round of the playoffs.