Veteran sportswriter and high school football expert Robert Wilson is doing the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard predictions column each week during the high school football season on teams from Hinds, Madison, and Rankin County. Wilson had a 22-5 record (81.5 percent) last week and has an 216-47 record (82.1 percent) this season.
Hartfield Academy (8-2) at Jackson Academy (8-2), Friday 7 p.m.
(watch and listen at hartfield.live and raidernetwork.org).
Defending MAIS Class 6A Hartfield saw its undefeated season and its 21-game winning streak – the longest in Mississippi – end three weeks ago when Madison-Ridgeland Academy won 44-35 in a 6A conference game. Hartfield hadn’t lost a game since Prep defeated Hartfield 10-7 in the 2022 6A state championship game.
Then Jackson Prep handed the Hawks their second conference loss in a row with a 51-45 decision the next week.
In both games, Hartfield – which has seven players who start on both offense and defense – ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. Hartfield led both games in the second half only to watch MRA and Prep come back and win. MRA outscored Hartfield 20-7 in the last quarter and a half and Prep outscored Hartfield 20-0 in the fourth quarter to come away with its wins.
Hartfield bounced back with a 62-20 conference victory over Madison St. Joseph last week.
This game with JA this week is for third place in the conference and the No. 3 seed in the 6A playoffs. The winner will likely face No. 2 seed MRA in the state semifinals while the loser will likely face No. 1 seed Prep.
Hartfield has won the last three games against JA, 38-6 in 2022 and 40-13 in the regular season and 35-7 in the state semifinals last season.
This Hartfield team has six players with Division I offers, four of those had a combined 83 offers going into the season and were members of the Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team and are rated high in Mississippi in 247 Sports.
There’s junior defensive back-wide receiver-kick returner Bralan Womack (rated the No. 1 safety in the country in the Class of 2026), senior defensive back-wide receiver-kick returner Kenzy West (rated the No. 15 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2025), 6-foot-3, 270-pound senior defensive tackle and Arkansas commitment Reginal Vaughn (rated No. 13 player and No. 3 defensive tackle in Mississippi in the Class of 2025) and 6-3, 290-pound senior defensive tackle and Alabama commitment London Simmons (rated No. 16 player and No. 4 defensive tackle in Mississippi in the Class of 2025).
Womack has scheduled visits to Washington (Saturday), LSU (Nov. 9), Texas (Nov. 23) and Ohio State (Nov. 30). He has been offered by most of the teams in the Top 25 and by all 16 SEC teams.
Womack has scored 17 touchdowns (11 receiving, four on interception returns, and one each on kickoff return and punt return) this season. West has scored 17 TDs (nine receiving, four rushing, two punt returns and one each on kickoff return and fumble return).
JA would be smart not to kick the ball deep to those two.
Simmons 47 tackles, 22 for loss, and 11.5 sacks and
Vaughn has 43 tackles, eight for loss, and 5.5 sacks.
Hartfield running back KD Catchings, another Division I prospect, is tough to bring down. The 6-2, 215-pound junior has gained 622 yards, averaged 9.7 yards per carry and scored 12 TDs.
Hartfield has seven players that start both ways, Womack, West, Simmons, Vaughn, Catchings and senior wide receiver-safety and Hinds Community College baseball commitment Sam Sheffield, and junior wide receiver-defensive back and Warren Central transfer Teryn Green, Hartfield’s sixth player with Division I offers.
JA’s top returning starter is 6-3, 295-pound junior defensive lineman Dereon Albert – who has 12 Division I offers, including SEC offers from Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas A&M. Albert is rated the No. 12 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports. He has 63 tackles, 15 for loss, and 7 sacks this season.
JA junior defensive end-linebacker TJ White (6-3, 215) has gotten better every week. The speedy White leads the team with 78 tackles, 15.5 for loss, and 8.5 sacks. White – rated No. 24 in Mississippi in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports – has Division I offers from Ole Miss, MSU, Jackson State, Auburn, Wisconsin, Baylor, Louisiana Tech, Toledo, and Akron.
JA sophomore offensive lineman Caden Moss (6-4, 260 pounds) is rated the No. 9 player in the country and the No. 1 offensive tackle in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 Sports and has Division I offers from Ole Miss, MSU, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Akron, and New Mexico State. He has been out most of the season with an injury but returned two weeks ago and made a huge difference in JA’s offensive line push and pass protection.
JA senior running back Omerean “Man Man” Ellis is a workhorse and has had a tremendous season. He has gained 1,000 yards for the second consecutive season and has 1,097 yards (7.6 yards per carry) and 11 TDs this year. Now with Moss and freshman Reed Miller (6-2, 210) back on the offensive line after recovering from injuries, Ellis has even more help gaining yards.
JA sophomore Pruett James took over as the starting quarterback earlier this season and have given the Raiders a spark at that position. He has passed for 581 yards and five TDs and ran for 183 yards and three TDs. James has been starting since the Lamar School game and JA has won four of those five games since he has starting. The loss was a 24-14 decision to MRA, and JA only trailed 10-7 entering the fourth quarter. James came off the bench and completed 11 of 22 passes for 149 yards and one TD in a loss to Prep. He replaced junior quarterback Carter Mathison, who set a school record with 1,911 passing yards last season as a sophomore.
James is the son of former JA star receiver Chesley James, who helped the Raiders win their first two state championships in 1995 and 1996.
Pruett’s main target is senior wide receiver John Thomas, who leads the team with 32 catches for 584 yards and seven TDs.
Another player that JA has back from injury is starting senior outside linebacker Foster Meachum, one of its best defensive players before he dislocated his elbow earlier in the season.
Along with Albert on defensive front is 6-3, 210-pound senior Parker Halford and 5-9, 260-pound senior Adonis Terry. Sophomore DaiShun Chatman, a transfer from Provine High, and junior Baird Kennedy, younger brother of former All-Metro Jackson linebacker Adam Kennedy, have been playing solid defense at safety.
Junior defensive back and Wesson High transfer O’Mari Johnson is rated the No. 11 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports and has nine Division I offers, including seven from the SEC. He is still out recovering from an ACL injury and Duggan hopes to get him back for the playoffs.
Hartfield coach Craig Bowman was last year’s Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year. He is in his seventh season as a head coach, fifth season at Hartfield. He led the Hawks to perfect record and the MAIS Class 6A state title, the first football state championship in the school’s 12-year history last season. Also impressive was that it was only Hartfield’s third year in Class 6A. Bowman has a 31-5 record over the past three seasons.
JA has a new head coach in longtime college assistant coach David Duggan. He was defensive coordinator at JA two years ago with head coach Aubrey Blackwell. After a year as defensive coordinator at Kent State, Duggan was hired after Blackwell, an Alabama native, left to take the head coaching job at Saint James School in Montgomery, Ala.
Southern Miss football fans are familiar with Duggan. He coached under Larry Fedora at Southern Miss from 2008 to 2011, then followed Fedora to North Carolina, then came back to Southern Miss and coached under Todd Monken from 2013-2016. Duggan was linebackers every year while at Southern Miss and also served as special teams coordinator (2009-11), co-defensive coordinator (2011) and defensive coordinator (2013-2016).
JA showed it has made much improvement since the Prep game and played MRA a tough game before the Patriots pulled away in the fourth quarter. JA’s defense held MRA – which had scored 40 or more points in seven games this season – to its lowest points this season before last week’s game against Prep.
This one might be closer than most expect. JA pulls one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi this season.
JA 28, Hartfield 24.
In other games (winners in bold):
Jim Hill (1-7) at Forest Hill (1-8), Thursday, South Jackson Field
Murrah (8-1) at Koscuisko (4-4), Thursday
Noxubee County (6-2) at McLaurin (2-7), Thursday
Puckett (4-5) at Pisgah (8-1), Thursday
Raleigh (8-1) at Pelahatchie (3-6), Thursday
Brandon (7-1) at Meridian (4-5)
Callaway (4-5) at Warren Central (5-3)
Clinton (5-4) at Germantown (5-4)
Florence (5-3) at South Jones (6-3)
Gentry (1-8) at Canton (6-2)
Hattiesburg (8-0) at Terry (6-2)
Nanih Waiya (5-4) at Velma Jackson (7-1)
Natchez (5-4) at Provine (1-8), Hughes Field
Neshoba Central (3-5) at Ridgeland (5-3)
Oak Grove (5-3) at Pearl (2-6)
Petal (6-3) at Northwest Rankin (5-3)
Raymond (3-4) at McComb (5-4)
Richland (1-8) at St. Andrew’s (5-4)
Starkville (6-2) at Madison Central (6-2)
Jackson Prep (10-0) at Madison St. Joseph (2-6)
Presbyterian Christian (4-5) at MRA (8-2)
Clinton Christian (2-8) at Columbia Academy (5-6)
Park Place Christian (4-6) at Porter’s Chapel (7-4)
