Friday night was a beautiful night for high school football at Hornet Field. Many alumni and former football players made it to the pregame ceremony to honor the 1976 Apache Conference Championship Team and Coach Pat Morris, the winningest football coach in school history. There were also several parents in attendance watching their daughters and future generations of Hornet Cheerleaders perform. Great weather, big crowd, now all we needed was a Poplarville win and that is exactly what we got.
The Hornets got off to a bit of a rocky start, stalling on it’s first couple of offensive possessions, but managed to accumulate 379 yards and 34 points en route to our second division win. The Hornet Defense played its best game to date allowing only 7 points and 179 yards of total offense for the Aggies. Senior Cornerback Artieus Johnson had an outstanding game picking off two passes. Ross Barnett led the team in tackles with 12. Jamerrick Waller had 10 tackles, 2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss. The Defensive Line played great and controlled the line of scrimmage throughout the game. The play of Junior Amari Harmon stood out as he was in on several tackles. Jesse Pernell rushed for 154 yards on 18 carries and had 3 TDs. Austin Bolton ran the ball 19 times for 126 yards. The other 2 TDs were scored by Tyson Holston and Peyton Graham. The Hornets are now 2-0 in District 7-4A and will host Sumrall this week for Homecoming.