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 19-4 record (82.6 percent) last week and has an 123-32 record (79.4 percent) this season.
West Jones (5-0) at Jackson Prep (6-0), Friday 7 p.m. (watch and listen at Jacksonprep.live and listen at Supertalk 93.3 FM in Laurel).
Jackson Prep has made a habit of defeating larger MHSAA teams when they play for the first time with their ability to play together, their surprising speed and talent.
Always known for their well-coached teams and discipline, Prep has dominated MAIS teams over the years and also defeated MHSAA teams, especially when the teams meet for the first time.
But West Jones last year did what only two MHSAA football teams had ever done to Prep: beat the Patriots in the first meeting against the MAIS perineal powerhouse. And the Mustangs also did to Prep what no team had done in 20 years.
West Jones, with a standout defensive front and speedy linebackers and defensive backs, limited Prep to 135 total yards – a negative 61 rushing yards – to end Prep’s 12-game winning streak and held Prep to the least number of points since 2004 with a 21-6 victory in an outstanding defensive battle between two undefeated teams in different associations at West Jones in Soso in Jones County.
MHSAA Class 6A West Jones – then ranked No. 11 in Mississippi by Maxpreps – improved to 6-0 and won in its first football meeting with a MAIS school. Defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Prep – then ranked No. 8 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – dropped to 6-1.
Prep had a 21-10 record against MHSAA football games, including a 9-2 mark when it played a team for the first time. Only George County in 2001 and Oxford in 2013 had beaten Prep in first meetings before last season.
West Jones’ defense was stingy, limited Prep to only two Eli Adams field goals. The last time Prep scored that few points was in 2004 when Jackson Academy defeated Prep 21-0 in the state championship game. The Patriots hadn’t been held out of the end zone in a game since a 9-0 win over Pearl in 2012.
Prep – who was playing without injured senior running back Lake Womack (who was leading the team in rushing yards and TDs going into the game) – came into the game averaging 39 points per game and had scored 42 or more points in four of its six games and was averaging 374.2 yards per game. But that all changed against West Jones.
West Jones scored all the points it needed on the first drive of the game. The Mustangs marched 80 yards and then freshman quarterback Tootie Lindsey – who gained a game-high 102 yards on 13 carries – scored on a 43-yard run for a 7-0 lead with nine minutes, 27 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Jackson Prep’s only points are two field goals by Eli Adams in the first half. Prep quarterback Billy Puckett passed for 196 yards but could not get the Patriots into the end zone. West Jones’ 6-foot-3, 230-pound defensive end Isaiah “Lunchmeat” Lindsey had four of the seven sacks on Puckett.
West Jones has had one of the best football programs in Mississippi for decades. West Jones lost to eventual Class 5A state champion Picayune in the second round of the playoffs two years ago, the last game for highly successful coaching career of Scott Pierson, who retired after 21 seasons as West Jones head coach. Pierson had a 195-65 record, an excellent winning percentage of 75 percent, and won one state title in 2020, one runner-up finish in 2018 and reached the semifinals six other seasons.
Former South Jones head coach and Oak Grove offensive coordinator Cory Reynolds took over for Pierson and hasn’t lost a game. Reynolds has a 19-0 record, an incredible feat, 14-0 last season and 5-0 this season.
West Jones has the longest current active winning streak in the MHSAA. Only defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Hartfield Academy has a longer current winning streak (20 games) in Mississippi.
West Jones returns eight starters (five offense and three defensive) from last year’s state championship team, whose defense allowed only 78 points, had seven shutouts, and is considered one of the best defenses in Mississippi history.
West Jones’ top players are 6-2, 230-pound junior running back Elijah Jones Crosby (1,002 yards, 16 TDs and rated No. 30 player and No. 4 running back in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports), 6-6, 300-pound junior offensive left tackle Bryson Cooley (who received an offer from Ole Miss last week), sophomore quarterback Tootie Lindsey, senior defensive back-wide receiver-kick returner Deon Graves, junior defensive back-linebacker Johnny Hilton, (leads team with 38 tackles and three interceptions), junior linebacker-running back Caleb Holmes (26 tackles) and senior defensive end Ty Hopkins (37 tackles, leads team with 12 tackles for loss and five sacks).
Prep has 13 returning starters from last year’s 10-4 team, which lost to Hartfield 21-0 for the 6A state championship.
The Patriots has two of the three top senior offensive tackles in Mississippi in Matthew Parker (6-8, 315 pounds), a Baylor commitment, and Cole Allen (6-6, 265 pounds), a Duke commitment. Parker is rated No. 20 and Allen No. 21 in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports. Only Tyler Miller of Laurel (rated No. 6) is ranked higher than Parker and Allen among offensive tackles. Parker has 25 Division I offers, including Power 5 schools Vanderbilt, Duke and Florida State. Allen has 19 Division I offers.
Other offensive starters are senior quarterback Billy Puckett (completed 73.5 percent of his passes for 1,126 yards and 15 TDs and only 2 interceptions), senior wide receiver and Air Force Academy commitment Major Quin (22 catches for 247 yards and 2 TDs), senior left tackle Robert Watson, senior left guard Reid Vineyard, senior center Thomas Coco (son of head of school Lawrence Coco), and junior tailback Thomas Hewitt Oswalt (298 yards, 2 TDs).
The returning starters on defense are Quin, senior outside linebackers Laird Johnson and Turner Reeves (nephew of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves), senior inside linebacker Will McMaster, and senior tackle Stuart Grubbs.
Also back on defense is senior linebacker and Arizona State baseball commitment Tre Bryant, who missed the West Jones game and the rest of the season after shoulder surgery. Bryant leads Prep with 38 tackles and 4.5 sacks this season.
Prep coach Doug Goodwin has won 262 games in his 30-year head coaching career, including a 28-5 record in his third season at Prep. He led Prep to a 12-1 record and the MAIS Class 6A state title in his first season at Prep two years ago. Goodwin brought the Patriots back from the most losses since the first year of the school in 1970 (an 8-5 record in 2022). He won 234 games in 27 seasons in Alabama, is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and was the first football coach in Alabama to take three different schools to state championship games. Goodwin led Demopolis to an undefeated season and a state title and set a state record with 761 points in 2008. He also had four state runner-up finishes.
MRA’s decisive, 51-13 victory over defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Oak Grove a few weeks ago opened some eyes and showed that the top teams in MAIS Class 6A (MRA, Prep and Hartfield) can compete and win against the top teams in MHSAA this season.
In addition to the MRA win over Oak Grove, the MAIS and MHSAA has played 15 more football games against each other this year. The MAIS won 14 of those games.
Prep is ranked No. 7 and West Jones No. 13 in Mississippi in the last Maxpreps rankings. MRA is ranked No. 9 and Oak Grove No. 12.
Prep’s defense, led by longtime coordinator Nick Brewer (who has been a part of 13 state championships), has allowed only 43 points, has two shutouts, and hasn’t allowed more than 14 points in a game this season. Prep should limit West Jones’ offense to a couple of TDs and Puckett should be able to get into the end zone this season.
Jackson Prep 17, West Jones 14.
In other games (winning team in bold):
Forest Hill (1-3) at Callaway (1-4), Thursday, Hughes Field
Bayou Academy (3-4) at Central Hinds (4-2)
Canton Academy (3-3) at Central Holmes (3-3)
Clinton (2-3) at Terry (5-0)
Columbia Academy (3-4) at Clinton Christian (2-5)
Discovery Christian (2-4) at Ben Ford’s, La. (5-1)
East Rankin Academy (2-5) at MRA (5-1)
Ethel (2-3) at Velma Jackson (3-1)
Germantown (4-1) at Gentry (1-4)
Hancock (1-4) at Florence (2-2)
Hillcrest Christian (1-5) at Porter’s Chapel (4-3)
Holmes County Central (3-1) at Murrah (5-0), South Jackson Field
Jim Hill (0-5) at Provine (0-5), Hughes Field
Lanier (5-0) at Richland (1-4)
Madison St. Joseph (1-3) at Jackson Academy (5-1)
McLaurin (2-3) at Kemper County (5-0)
Oak Forest, La. (4-2) at Hartfield Academy (6-0)
Park Place Christian (3-3) at Prairie View, La. (5-1)
Pelahatchie (2-3) at St. Andrew’s (3-2)
Pisgah (5-0) at Raleigh (5-0)
Puckett (4-1) at Leake County (2-3)
Tri-County Academy (6-0) at Washington (3-3)
