Pearl River Central (10-1, 7-0) hosts Natchez (4-6, 3-4) for the first round of the state playoffs this Friday.

The Blue Devils are coming off two huge victories for the program. Two weeks ago, they beat Hattiesburg to win their first district championship since 1995, and last week they beat rival Picayune for the first time since 1995 as well.

Head Coach Eric Collins said he, his staff and his players are all fixated on the task ahead. 

“It’s do or die time now and after Monday’s practice our kids understand that. The kids came out and practiced hard and the coaches coached hard. Nothing changes, the world doesn’t end cause you beat Picayune. We gotta keep playing,” Collins said. 

“That’s never been my goal or focus. My goal and focus is to win a state championship. That’s what I want and that’s what I continue to focus on.”

Collins said that he attributes his team’s focus to everyone on the team buying into the team’s philosophy.

As for matching up against Natchez, Collins said this is one of the biggest teams that they have played this year.

“These guys have a couple of 300 pounders, their offensive line, looks like the Saints offensive line and their skill kids are quality. They have a lot of guys that go both ways and hopefully that’s something that we can exploit,” Collins said.

Offensively Natchez has a decent quarterback in sophomore Chris Scott who throws for 167.8 yards a game and has 12 touchdowns on the year. 

Collins says Scott is not a blazing fast runner, but does posess the ability to run through the defense.

However, PRC’s defense should be looking forward to facing him as he has thrown 11 picks this year. 

Collins says they are going to look to contain Scott and the passing game along with junior running back Tydarrius Terrell who averages 93.4 yards per game.

PRC’s strong running game led by Christian Roberts, Hunter Holifield and Michael Tatman, combined for 7 touchdowns last game. They should have another dominant performance this Friday. 

“The thing about Natchez is that we’ve played them for two years, we were in their district. We know what we’re getting and they know what they’re getting so there’s not gonna be any surprises on Friday,” Collins said.

Look for PRC to stick to their consistent and potent ground game offensively and cause a lot of turnovers on defense.