The Hornets struggled to start the season going 1-4 in their first five games.

However, since the start of district play the team has turned it around winning two straight.

The most recent win came last Friday night when Poplarville faced Stone County’s Wildcats.

Stone has had a rough season, and was coming off a close loss to Purvis before the team’s match up against Poplarville.

It was a tale of two teams going in opposite directions as the Hornets dominated on both sides of the ball en route to a 41-14 victory.

The 41-point game by the offense was its third largest output of the season, and the defense forced multiple turnovers to keep the Wildcats’ offense off the field.

Head Coach Jay Beech said he was happy with his team’s performance, but players on both sides of the ball need to improve in some areas as well.

“We did have too many penalties, and some bone head mistakes, but physically I thought we played hard. Defensively it took a little while to wake up, but once we did we created three turnovers and scored on one,” Beech said.

Turnovers were a major part of the team’s success, and the defense has played lights out football during the two game winning streak the team is currently on.

Linebacker Hagan Hall and defensive end Khalid Moore, who combined for nearly one third of the team’s tackles against Stone, led the unit.

Moore is only a sophomore, and Beech said the defensive end would end up being a big time player for the Hornets.

“Khalid is a great athlete, and he was making sophomore mistakes earlier in the year, but has continued to get better,” Beech said.

Hall is a year older, but the junior linebacker is only in his first year as a starter. “Hagan is in the same boat, and he’s getting some valuable experience,” Beech said.

Beech will need his team to be firing on all cylinders this week in practice as they prepare for their next opponent, the Purvis Tornadoes. Purvis is on a five game winning streak, and the two teams share the top spot in the district along with Greene County with all three teams having 2-0 records in district play. The game is set to take place on Oct. 18 at Purvis, and kickoff will be at 7 p.m.