It’s going to take all Purvis has to beat the Poplarville Hornets in the 4A Quarterfinal matchup Friday, but at least the Tornadoes are coming off one of their most complete games of the season in the second round.
The Purvis Tornadoes (6-6) traveled to Florence last week and took down the Eagles 41-21, and by all accounts, they’re running on all cylinders heading into the colossal matchup with a region foe. Poplarville (12-0), which was the region champ, will travel to Purvis for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday.
“I think we definitely played hard,” Purvis coach Perry Wheat said. “I thought we had a lot of energy and we had a better effort on defense. We played some pretty good defense at times, so I was pleased overall with what we did.”
After junior Mason Kendrick was pushed into quarterback duties in the first round against Mendenhall, he started last week’s game, and senior Ty Howell played some, too. Sophomore Jesse Johnson even completed his only pass for a 46-yard gain.
Whether Howell is completely healthy this week, Wheat could still use the multiple quarterback system this week.
“We planned on playing both of them,” Wheat said. “We started Mason, and he had a good week and Ty has been dinged up. We started (Kendrick) but we knew we’d probably play both. Really each one of them brings something to table that’s a little different, so I don’t have a problem playing both of them any week. We might continue that.”
Whoever is at quarterback, he has a special running back to hand the ball off to, as senior John Bolton has rushed for 1,438 yards and 19 touchdowns on 211 carries. He had his best performance last week, too, rushing for 176 yards and four touchdowns on 18 attempts. He now has eight 100-yard performances and four multiple touchdown games.
Bolton has been playing a significant amount of time on defense, too. Even while playing both ways, Wheat said Bolton is playing his best football in a Purvis uniform right now.
Against Poplarville last month, Bolton carried the ball 10 times for 96 yards and a touchdown, but 80 of those yards came on one play. The Tornadoes will need Bolton to perform well Friday night because Poplarville scores 40 points per game.
The Hornets scored a season-high 69 points on Purvis. Wheat said three turnovers inside its own 30-yard line allowed Poplarville to score easily, so ball security will be crucial Friday.
“We have to tackle better, for one thing,” Wheat said when asked what his team has to do differently. “We have to do a good job of reading our keys and tackling. … Turnovers can get it turned around in a hurry, and that’s been one of our problems. We’ve had more turnovers than we normally do, and I don’t think it’s carelessness or anything like that. I think the ball has been ripped out a couple of times or got hit a certain way. Hopefully, we can protect the ball and not turn the ball over Friday night.”
Wheat used an old cliché, “It’s hard to beat a team twice,” when asked about playing Poplarville again, but he isn’t sure if that’s the case, or at least there’s more to it that.
“I think both teams are familiar with each other, so it’s going to come down to who can perform that night and who brings the most energy,” Wheat said. “We do know they have a great football team, there’s a doubt about that. What they’ve accomplished this year, the number of points they’ve scored and those kind of things, they’re really a good football team. We’re going to have to play better than any time this year to be able to win the football game.”
Poplarville beat Northeast Lauderdale 42-27 in the first round, then defeated St. Stanislaus 42-31 last week on the road. After two straight shutouts over Forrest County AHS and Sumrall, teams have scored an average of 28 points on the Hornets in the last four games. Purvis’ 34 is the most during the stretch, and it is the second most points scored on the Hornets this entire season.
