Who said the road to the 5A State Championship would be easy for Hattiesburg? Even though tough opponents like Brookhaven and Picayune have been knocked out, Laurel might be the highest hurdle for the Tigers in the 5A South State Championship.
The Golden Tornadoes know what it’s like to play in this game because this is their fifth straight south state title game appearance. They’re 2-2 in those games, winning a 5A State Championship in 2014, the school’s third, while claiming runner-up to West Point last season.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hattiesburg coach Tony Vance said. “Those guys up the road, they’ve been a thorn in our side the last couple of years in the playoffs, so to be the best you have to beat the best. They’re the defending 5A South State champions, so if you want to claim that title, you have to beat them. It’s only right.”
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Laurel, which is currently riding a five-game winning streak, is 11-4 in the postseason under sixth-year head coach Todd Breland. It has made the playoffs in each of those six years, failing to make it to the south state title game once – the first season in 2012.
In the past two seasons, since Hattiesburg was reclassified as a 5A school, Laurel has beaten the Tigers in the playoffs. In 2015, Hattiesburg fell in the first round, then a second-round loss last season for Hattiesburg. During those two years, though, Hattiesburg has claimed the Little Brown Jug game from Laurel in the regular season.
So, what’s been the difference in the two games? Are the playoffs just a completely different animal with more pressure? Absolutely, but Laurel coach Todd Breland doesn’t believe that’s what has hurt the Tigers. It’s quite literally how the ball bounces.
“I think it’s just two good teams going after it,” Breland said. “It could have easily been the opposite and the other way around. We’re both very good football teams, and I don’t think it has anything to do with somebody getting better in the playoffs. This is the way the ball bounces sometimes, but we’re certainly happy with the way it’s turned out the last couple of years.
“We’d prefer to win both of them, but it hasn’t worked out that way and we’re going to try our best of keeping that tradition of what’s happened the last few years alive Friday night.”
Since Vance took over at Hattiesburg, he’s 4-3 against the Golden Tornadoes, but 0-2 in the playoffs. The first meeting in the 2015 postseason was a Laurel 24-point win, but in last season’s second-round matchup, the Tigers had opportunities to win the game. Then-senior Jordan Murphy, who’s playing for the Tennessee Volunteers now, caught a pass a foot out-of-bounds in the end zone as time ran out.
Laurel took four regular-season losses this year, which included a 20-14 loss to these Tigers, and even after claiming the three-seed, the Golden Tornadoes knew how to handle the postseason. They beat Picayune 42-35, then won a slugfest with Brookhaven – Region 3-5A’s No. 1 seed.
It’s as simple as his players understanding the process, Breland said.
“There’s going to be some bumps and bruises along the way and the game might not come out the way they wanted it to here or there, but they understand the process,” Breland said. “As we get closer to the playoffs, they know they have to tighten it up. We’re always playing our best when the playoffs come around, and this year has been no exception with the first two.”
Like the previous three Little Brown Jug games, Hattiesburg beat Laurel. It was a game that could have gone either way, but senior Dexter Jordan stepped up with a big interception in the end zone as time ticked off the clock.
The win marked the Tigers’ fourth straight win in the Jug game, but the two playoff losses loom over the Hattiesburg program.
“When you look back at Week 2, they’re a different football team and we’re a different football team,” Breland said. “That was so long ago that I had to watch the film to remember a lot of it. At the end of the day, you have to do what got you here. Of course, they’ll have a few wrinkles and we’ll have a few wrinkles, but you have to run your offense and your defense that got you to this point.”
