Veteran sportswriter and high school football expert Robert Wilson is doing the Germany Law Firm, PLLC/Mississippi Scoreboard predictions column each week during the high school football season on teams from Hinds, Madison, and Rankin County. Wilson had an 18-11 record (62.1 percent) last week and has a 44-21 record (67.7) this season.
By Robert Wilson
Tri-County Academy (2-0) at Jackson Prep (1-2)
The Little Engine That Could – aka Tri-County – takes on the Big Bad Wolf – aka Prep – in a historic first football meeting between two of the most successful football programs in MAIS history.
Prep is the MAIS standard of football excellence in the biggest classification, with a Mississippi record 22 state championships and boasts the fact that it hasn’t had a losing season since the first year as a school in 1970. Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame member and former national coach of the year Ricky Black was responsible for 263 of those wins, winning 13 state titles and coaching at Prep from 1997-2020.
Tri-County has been a leader among the smaller classifications, winning three state championships and one state runner-up finish in the past four years.
Tri-County has won its last 21 consecutive games (the longest active streak in Mississippi) and 27 consecutive MAIS games (the last loss to Greenville St. Joseph in the 2022 state championship game).
Tri-County has rolled in its first two games, winning over St. Aloysius 46-0 and Canton Academy 44-0.
The Rebels have a remarkable 53-4 record – a 93.0 winning percentage – in the last five years.
Tri-County coach Philip Wasson – who has been extremely successful himself, even before coming to Tri-County, with five state titles (three at Tri-County and two at Washington School) and has played in seven championship games in his 20 seasons as a head coach in his career – has five returning starters on defense and four on offense.
The defense is led by a pair of MAIS All-State defensive ends, MAIS Class 4A Player of the Year, junior Crews Albritton, and senior Bryce Brooks.
Tri-County will have a new quarterback for the first time in four years. Bryce Warriner, who threw for 5,964 yards and 71 touchdowns and ran for 1,271 yards and 18 TDs in his outstanding career, 1,366 yards and 15 TDs last season, is playing at East Central Community College this season. Cooper Johnson replaces Warriner.
Senior running back Hayden Hunt returns after finishing with 1,803 rushing yards and 23 TDs, including 149 yards and two TDs in the state championship game, last season as a junior.
Tri-County also lost to graduation wide receiver-defensive back and East Central CC signee Brayden Walsh – a member of the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard All Metro Jackson team last season – who had 451 receiving yards and 7 TDs and had 68 tackles and 1 interception last season. Walsh had a game-high 13 tackles in the championship win over Bowling Green, La. Also, leading tackler, linebacker Walker Hilderbrand (113 tackles, nine sacks), graduated.
The Tri-County roster has 38 players compared to Prep’s 68 players. Tri-County has 120 students in grades 9-12 compared to Prep’s 400.
Prep won its first game this season last week with a 55-19 victory over Lamar School. The Patriots are trying to recover from losing 36 seniors from last year’s team, which finished 13-1 and lost Hartfield Academy 19-14 in the MAIS Class 6A state championship game.
Prep lost to Tennessee power Battle Ground Academy 48-13 in the season opener, then lost to Parklane 18-7 for the first time since 1995.
Prep only has three returning starters, senior wide receiver Aiden Rowe, senior running back Thomas Hewitt Oswalt and senior kicker-punter Eli Adams.
Prep is missing some outstanding players who are now freshman in college like quarterback Billy Puckett (Mississippi State), offensive linemen Cole Allen (Duke) and Matthew Parker (Vanderbilt), wide receiver-defensive back Major Quin (Air Force), and linebacker Tre Bryant (playing baseball at the University of California).
Prep coach Doug Goodwin has won 269 games in his 31-year head coaching career, including a 35-8 record in his fourth season at Prep. He led Prep to a 12-1 record and the MAIS Class 6A state title in his first season at Prep three years ago. 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 in Alabama.
Tri-County will give Prep a battle for a while, but Prep’s depth will be the difference.
Jackson Prep 28, Tri-County 14.
Clinton (2-0) at Brandon (1-1)
Clinton is one of surprise teams in Mississippi so far this season.
After winning only four games last season, the Arrows defeated Warren Central 45-13 in the season opener and Northwest Rankin 19-11 in the second game.
Clinton has a new coach after John Carr left for Starkville High after one season and promoted defensive coordinator Hamer Morgan to head coach.
Morgan has been an assistant coach at Clinton since 2015 and was a part of Arrows’ state championship team in 2016 with Cam Akers, now playing in the NFL. Morgan was head coach at Forest from 2012-2014 and was an assistant from 2001-2011 and was a part of Forest’s MHSAA Class 3A state runner-up finishes in 2008 and 2010.
Clinton lost starting quarterback, Josef Walker, leading tackler Adam Alexander, key wide receiver, Jaydann Hollins, and top running back, Aaric Beasley, from last year when they transferred to Jackson Academy.
Clinton sophomore running back Braylon Lowery has 283 yards and five TDs, sophomore quarterback Jayden Jones has passed for 309 yards and two TDs and ran for 63. Yards, and junior wide receiver Jaden Johnson has caught nine passes for 163 yards and one TD. Senior middle linebacker Jaiden Jefferson has a team-high 20 tackles.
Brandon also has a new coach in Lance Pogue, who replaced Sam Williams. Most Mississippi high school football fans are familiar with Pogue, one of the winningest football coaches in Mississippi history. He has a career record of 247-71, a 77.7 percent winning percentage (one of the best in Mississippi history for coaches with 200 career wins) in 25 seasons, including a 126-17 record (88.1 percent winning percentage, five state titles and one national championship in 10 seasons at South Panola.
Brandon bounced back from a 36-15 loss to Tupelo in the season opener in a rematch of the MHSAA Class 7A state title game to defeat Madison Central 17-7 last week.
Brandon won without junior running back Tyson Robinson – rated the No. 4 running back and the No. 42 player in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 Sports who has 19 offers, including 10 for the SEC – bothered by a hamstring injury. Pogue decided to hold him out last Friday night, but his teammates took up the slack for him.
Brandon trailed 7-0 at halftime but outscored Madison Central 17-0 in the second half.
Brandon sophomore running back Travion Washington – who plays linebacker and is used on short yardage situations – scored on a run on fourth and inches with 1 minute, 6 seconds to play in the third quarter for a 7-7 tie.
Then, Brandon got a defensive score when senior defensive back Elijah Morey intercepted a pass and returned it 45 yards for a TD for a 14-7 Brandon lead with 10:17 to play in the fourth quarter.
Brandon senior Jase Eldridge added a 28-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead with 1:41 to play.
Brandon 17, Clinton 10
In other games (winning team in bold):
Canton (1-1) at Murrah (0-2), Hughes Field, Thursday
McComb (2-0) at Provine (0-2), South Jackson Field, Thursday
Bay Springs (2-0) at Forest Hill (0-2), South Jackson Field
Callaway (2-0) at Grenada (2-0)
Christ Covenant (2-1) at Prentiss Christian (1-2)
Clarkdale (2-0) at Pelahatchie (1-1)
Clinton Christian (0-2) at St. Aloysius (2-1)
Copiah Academy (2-0) at Raymond (1-1)
Discovery Christian (0-3) at Christian Collegiate (0-3)
Florence (1-1) at Pearl (0-2)
Germantown (1-1) at Warren Central (1-1)
Hartfield Academy (0-2) at Pillow Academy (1-2)
Jackson Academy (2-0) at Greenville St. Joseph (1-2)
Jefferson County (0-2) at Velma Jackson (0-2)
Lanier (2-0) at Jim Hill (1-1), Hughes Field
Madison Central (1-1) at Brookhaven (2-0)
Magnolia Heights (3-0) at Madison St. Joseph (1-2)
MRA (2-1) at Collierville, Tenn. (2-1)
McLaurin (0-2) at Richland (1-1)
Northwest Rankin (1-1) at Wayne County (0-2)
Noxapater (1-1) Puckett (1-1)
Ridgeland (2-0) at Vicksburg (2-0)
St. Andrew’s (0-2) at Bogue Chitto (0-2)
Sebastopol (1-1) at Pisgah (2-0)
Silliman, La. (2-0) at Central Hinds (3-0)
Starkville Academy (2-0) at East Rankin (3-0)
Stringer (1-1) at Park Place (1-1)
Terry (2-0) at North Pike (0-2)
