This past Friday night, The Poplarville Hornets beat the Newton County Cougars 49-21.

Poplarville, similar to previous games had a large lead at halftime. They led 34-7 over Newton County at the half, at one point Poplarville let 34-0. The Hornets scored every touchdown on the ground, rushing for a total of 493 yards. Avan Jarvis racked a season high 252 yards and four touchdown. Maurice also had a good night running the ball. He ran 176 yards for one touchdown. Matt Will also scored for two touchdowns off 33 rushing yards.

Once the score was set at 34-14 in the third quarter both teams traded scores until the final 49-21.

“I think anytime you win in the second round of the playoffs you got to be very happy,” said Head Coach Jay Beech. “Offensively we played really well, didn’t have any turnovers, that’s huge in the playoffs. Defense fought real hard and came up with stops when we needed them. We were able to get the victory in the second round, I’m very happy about that.”

Beech rated the offensive’s performance an A and the defense a B+.

Next, Poplarville is matched up against the Stone Tomcats for an Elite Eight game. Kick off is set for Friday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.

Pregame coverage on this Elite Eight matchup will be released in Wednesday’s issue.