After falling short last year in the state title game, Head Coach Jay Beech and the Poplarville Hornets were hoping for a different result when they took on the Corinth Warriors Saturday.

The back and forth game started with both offenses finding the end zone on their opening drives.

Corinth took the ball down the field on the first drive of the game and quarterback DT Sheffield found an opening and ran the ball 50-yards to the house.

Kicker John Ellis Murah sent the PAT through the uprights, giving Corinth an early 7-0 lead.

Poplarville responded with a scoring drive of their own as running back Chase Shears took a handoff 66-yards into the end zone. Zach Carpenter came on for the PAT and sent the kick through the uprights to tie the game at 7-7.

However, the offensive momentum stopped there for the Hornets as the Warriors took advantage of some big plays offensively to build a 34-7 lead heading into halftime.

Sheffield and running back Tameron Patterson were weapons all game for the Warriors with Patterson having two rushing touchdowns, while Sheffield found the end zone once again on the ground and through the air in the first half.

Poplarville found some rhythm offensively late in the third quarter when the Hornets constructed a seven minute drive that was capped off by a touchdown run from wing back Caziah Daniels to bring the score to 41-13.

Full back Zac Owen found the end zone early in the fourth quarter on a one yard touchdown run following another Sheffield rushing touchdown.

The two point conversion by Daniels was good bringing the score to 48-21 with 9:30 left in the game.

Patterson scored again on a 35-yard touchdown run late in the fourth to ice the game for the Warriors.

Poplarville’s offense did a good job of moving the ball on the ground as the team finished the game with 389 yards rushing.

Shears had 154 yards on 12 carries while Owen had 78 yards on 23 carries.

Defensive end Khalid Moore led the team with 10 tackles with linebacker Mason Anderson close behind with 9 tackles.

After the game, Beech said he was proud of his team’s performance, but that the big plays from the Warriors were costly.

“We made some mistakes in the first half, but they have an explosive team and credit to them,” Beech said.