In pursuit of a top seed in the 2016 MHSAA 5A Football Championship Tournament, Picayune Memorial High School squares off against Pascagoula High School Friday. Both are tied for first place in the 5A Region 4 district along with Hattiesburg and a Stone team that gave Picayune its only loss of the season.

The Pascagoula Panthers had a jagged start to the season, losing its first three games while scoring a mere 20 points total. However, after its third game, the Panthers managed to score more than 20 points in all but one game, which they lost to Hattiesburg 49-14.

When Picayune played Hattiesburg, they allowed Hattiesburg to score nearly the same amount of points, but the Tide scraped together a 56-48 win, giving the Tigers its only district loss of the season so far.

Overall, the Panthers are 5-4, but in district play they are 4-1, tied with Picayune. Friday will be extremely important in determining which teams will move on to the playoffs.

Pascagoula’s Head Football Coach Lewis Sims said after his win against Pearl River Central last week that “this sets up a showdown in Picayune. The next two weeks are going to make a difference in the playoffs.”

After Picayune’s loss in double overtime to Stone County on Oct. 14, it was expected that the highly ranked squad would bounce back with a vengeance, which they delivered in style last week.

Picayune may have gotten rid of some of the frustration of its loss to Stone by stomping on a 0-4 Long Beach team 62-21 last week. The Maroon Tide achieved the win without its workhorse, running back Josh Littles.

Littles injured his knee in his team’s loss to Stone County early in the first half. However, with a skilled backfield to fill in while he recovers, the Maroon Tide didn’t miss a beat as Shaun Anderson ran for 294 yards on meager nine carries, averaging 33 yards each time he was handed the ball. Anderson accumulated almost as many yards as Long Beach’s entire offense, which had 307 total yards last week.

Along with his amazing total yards, he found the end zone four times against Long Beach with his longest run being 74 yards.

With the top seeds still up for grabs in the 4-5A district, the 4-1 Pascagoula Panthers and Picayune Maroon Tide will brawl for a critical win on Friday in Picayune.

Kickoff for the pivotal game is at 7 p.m.