Mississippi Friday night rewind: Pearl Pirates knock off No. 8 Warren Central in overtime thriller
The Pearl Pirates appear to be back.
After playing to a 17-17 tie with the No. 8 Warren Central Vikings Friday night, quarterback Jack Durr scored a two-point conversion on a QB keeper to lift Pearl to a 25-24 win and a 2-0 start.
Durr had the option to throw the ball, but the sophomore recognized an opportunity and helped himself to it.
“I knew my reads and I saw man coverage," he said. "So I was either going to hit the corner in the back, or I was going to run it. I knew I had a lane, so I just took it.”
The sophomore raced past two charging Viking defenders and crossed the goal line before being mobbed by his teammates.
It was a fitting end to a tough, physical ballgame that swung back and forth for four quarters, and then some.
MORE: Check out all the scores with the SB Live Friday night Scoreboard
It started off with a bang — Warren Central (1-1) scored on its first possession on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Maddox Lynch to Jaylon Winters. But the Viking offense couldn’t find pay dirt the rest of the half, as the Pearl defense came up with an interception, forced three punts and got one turnover on downs.
After a slow start, Durr sparked the Pearl offense to life early in the second quarter, marching the Pirates 50 yards to set up a 32-yard Colston Bennett field goal and trim the Vikings’ lead to 7-3.
On the Pirate’s next possession, Durr hit on back-to-back 34-yard passes to Kingi McNair and Shaden McCollum, with the latter putting Pearl ahead 10-7 with 3:27 left in the first half.
“(Durr) is a good player,” Pearl coach Justin Hunter said. “He’s wise beyond his years. He plays with a lot of confidence, and I like that about him. He’s a winner.”
Both teams scored on their first possession of the second half. Pearl went first and scored on a 12-yard pass from Durr to McNair. The Vikings came right back with a 32-yard scoring pass from freshman Nash Morgan to Zack Evans.
Both defenses again found their footing, and the two teams traded punts for 12 minutes before Warren Central finally got a break. Evans delivered a 20-yard punt return to set up a clutch 32-yard field goal from Harber Williams that tied the game at 17-17 with 3:41 left.
Warren Central went first in overtime and scored on the first play — a 10-yard run from Eric Collins Jr.
But Antwuane Shoto covered the same 10 yards in two carries for Pearl, which set up Durr’s game-winning two-point play.
“We had a timeout saw what they were lined up in and knew what they were going to do,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “We didn’t execute what we were trying to do, which was to keep him from rolling out. Thought we had it well-defended, but their guy made a play.”
With the win, Pearl matched its win total from a year ago, when the Pirates lost their final six games and finished 2-9.
“It was a tough year,” Hunter said. “It was tough on our players, tough on our coaches… even tough on our coaches’ wives, and I’m serious about that. But we had a great spring, an incredible summer and these guys have been locked in.”
There’s a lot of football to be played — the Pirates host a 2-0 Brookhaven team next week — but Friday night’s big win was a huge step in the right direction.
Oak Grove's big night in Birmingham
Pearl wasn't the only 7A team to put a big pelt on the wall Friday night. Over in Birmingham, Ala., the second-ranked Oak Grove Warriors moved to 2-0 with a 28-21 win over the perennial powerhouse Hoover Buccaneers.
The Bucs missed a 33-yard field goal as time expired with a 21-21 tie, and the Warriors' star quarterback Anthony Maddox made them pay.
It took one play for the Texas A&M commit to find Damari Jefferson for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
Warrior linebacker Malachi Henderson burst through the line on Hoover's first overtime play and stopped Fred Duncan for a loss, and the three ensuing passes fell incomplete to seal the win.
No. 1 Starkville wins again
The Starkville Yellowjackets (2-0) got all they wanted from Kahnen Daniels and the West Point Green Wave (0-2), but Mississippi's top-ranked team found a way to win 39-28 in an absolute downpour Friday night in West Point.
Daniels, a University of Florida commit, went off for 240 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns, but it wasn't enough to outpace the defending Class 7A champs.
University of Illinois commit Trey Petty passed for one touchdown and ran for another, and Courtland Cooper and Jay Stevenson combined for three rushing TDs to lift the Jackets to their 10th win in a row, going back to Oct. 13 of last year.
Madison Central takes grudge match against Brandon
The seventh-ranked Madison Central Jaguars (2-0) turned some heads with a 40-26 win over the No. 6 Brandon Bulldogs in "The Jungle."
Louisiana Monroe commit Nate Blount kept Brandon (0-2) in the game with two first-half touchdown runs, but the Bulldogs couldn’t keep pace with Glen Singleton and the Jaguar offense in the second half.
It was the first meeting between the two programs since the 2021 MHSAA 6A Championship, which Madison Central won 24-17. The win also avenged a 28-7 loss to Bulldogs in Week 2 of 2022.
We'll get 'em next year
There were three big rivalry games settled Friday night, and two of them were pretty good ones.
Down in the Pine Belt, the Hattiesburg Tigers (1-1) hoisted the Little Brown Jug after defeating the Laurel Golden Tornadoes 37-28 “Between the Bricks” at Watkins Stadium.
The Tigers forced a turnover on downs at the Laurel 11-yard line with 1:51 to go, and Jordan Bratcher sealed the deal with a six-yard touchdown run.
In other rivalry action, Tayton James and the Mendenhall Tigers (2-0) beat the Magee Trojans 47-15 in the Simpson County Super Bowl and the Booneville Blue Devils held off the Baldwyn Bearcats 34-26 to claim the Skunk Bowl.
