Pearl River Central defended its Region 4-5A golf championship in fine fashion here at Millbrook Country Club Tuesday afternoon.

The Blue Devils shot an impressive 296 team total over the 18-hole event to take the title by a whopping 32 strokes. Pearl River Central also captured the top three individual spots on the All-District team. recording the three lowest scores of the day.

Head coach Bruce Penton’s squad now sets its sights on the Class 5A state tournament which takes place next week at Lake Caroline Country Club in Madison.

Malachi Spiers earned low medalist honors with an even par 72, while teammate Nick Sumner was right behind with a 73 and his brother Matthew Spiers followed closely with a 74.

“We played very well today,” Penton said. “It was a complete team effort, we were very solid one through five. Malachi is very good around the greens and is very good at keeping his composure. That helped a lot today.”

The Blue Devil trio of Spiers, Sumner and Spiers were joined on the All-District team by George County’s Sean Smith and East Central’s Wyatt Adkinson, who shot 75 and 76, respectively.

Rounding out the Pearl River Central scoring was Mason Cunningham with a 77 and Carter Nicholson with an 87.

George County finished second in the team standings with a score of 328, while East Central edged Pascagoula for third place shooting a 341 as compared to Pascagoula’s 343. The top four teams qualified for the state tournament.

Picayune finished fifth at 355, while Gautier shot a 359. West Harrison finished at 367 and Long Beach rounded out the field at an even 400.

“The good thing about our team this year is that any one of our five golfers can finish in the top three or four of any tournament on any given day,” Penton said. “That’s something we haven’t always had in past years.”

The Blue Devils have led the Class 5A state tournament after the first round of play each of the past two years.

The group from Pearl River Central hopes to take that a step further this year and hang on the second day and perhaps bring a state crown back to Carriere next week.