With the regular season schedule coming to a close, here’s a look into what playoffs could look like in the 4A and 5A classifications.

The Mississippi 4A teams will play their last regular season games this Friday. The 2022 District champion Poplarville Hornets hold the No.1 spot in the 4A class and rank 11th amongst all Mississippi schools. Their final game on the regular season will be home against Sumrall Bobcats (6-3).

Poplarville is rocking with an 8 game win streak at 8-1 this season. Poplarville has been dominant offensively and defensively amongst their opponents. Defensively Poplaville has shut out two teams and allowed just 8.7 points per-game. The offense has put high scores on the board this year, averaging 37.8 points per-game.

With the second phase of the regular season ending this week, Poplarville is expected to have a spot in the playoffs. Head Coach Jay Beech said this week is all about Hornets football.

“We definitely see some things we aren’t good at at the moment. This is the week where we see if we can go out and clean some of that stuff up.” said Beech.

The Mississippi 5A teams will play their final regular season games Thursday, Nov. 3 or Friday Nov. 4.

Head Coach Jacob Owens said his Pearl River Central Blue Devils will be out of this year’s playoff due to the team’s current 1-7 season. PRC as of now is at the bottom of district, standing at 1-4. They still have two games left this season against a tough 5-0 district standing Gautier Gators this Friday and a 6-3 overall West Harrison Hurricanes on Nov 4. Wins during the next two weeks could jump them higher in the rankings but not enough for a playoff spot.

This season PRC has scored an average of 11.75 points per game. On the other end, PRC allowed 36 points per game this year. The Blue Devils were fortunate to have found success in the passing game this season. So far they’ve thrown for 742 yards on 106 attempts for 55 completions. They already passed last season’s total by five yards and completed 17 more passes.

Picayune is riding high on an undefeated wave right now at 9-0. With two games left in the regular season, they sit at No. 1 in the 5A classification and rank 4^th in the state of Mississippi. Even with the high ranking in their district, Head Coach Cody Stogner says Picayune needs to continue to win in order to clinch back-to-back district titles. Their final test will come Thursday Nov. 3 in the form of the No. 2 team in district the Gautier Gators, another undefeated district team. Picayune will worry about the playoffs and strategies after playing Gautier. Right now, Stogner and company will focus on ironing out their game and getting better one week at a time.

Picayune’s traditional run first style has proven to be prosperous again this season, and their defense has bricked up walls around their opposing team’s offense. In this season, Picayune has allowed just 6.5 points per game while scoring 38 points per game.