Picayune

The Picayune Maroon Tide football team is playoff bound this season. This week’s preparation focuses on the district championship and rights for the number one seed in the 5A state championship. Head Coach Cody Stogner said from here on out everything is going to be a grind.

“It’s going to take our best effort, they’re (Gautier) a good football team coached well and they have a great quarterback…It’s going to be a good football game regardless of how you look at it,” said Stogner.

Picayune will host the 8-1 and No. 2 district team (6-0 in district) the Gautier Gators this Thursday Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

Season stats

The Gators are the No. 2 ranked team in the 5A class. Gautier is an efficient passing team, completing 60 percent of their attempts. On the year they’ve thrown for a total of 2,592 yards for 30 touchdowns. What also makes their passing game efficient is the quarterback, who’s only thrown three interceptions and picks up 3.3 passing touchdowns a game. On the ground they rushed for 1,118 yards for 21 touchdowns.

Picayune, the No. 1 team in the 5A class also has impressive statistics, outpacing Gautier by almost 2,000 more rushing yards. Picayune’s strength is in the ground game. On the season the Maroon Tide has carried the ball 326 times for a total of 3,029 yards. In the air the team has completed 59 percent of attempted passes. Gautier threw the ball 287 times compared to Picayune’s 42 attempts.

In terms of touchdowns, both teams score over 35 points a game on average. Defensively Picayune only allows one touchdown per game. Gautier allows 17 points per game.

While watching film of previous performances on Saturday, Stogner said he could tell his player are locked in for Thursday’s match up.

“It just seems like they went into a different mode…it kind of gets me fired up,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate enough that a lot of ours guys have played in some pretty big games so the moment never really gets too big for them,” he said.

PRC

This will be the end of the road for the Pearl River Central Blue Devils football season this week. They will play their final game against the West Harrison Hurricanes this Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

Season Stats

On the season they are 1-9 overall and 1-5 in district play. Pearl River Central was pretty balance in the run game and passing game. Qorday Russell has thrown for 818 yards with a 61 percent completion rate. The Blue Devils have run for 1,054 yards on the teas for five rushing touchdowns.