LEAKSVILLE – It might be Purvis versus Greene County Friday, but there’s another interesting storyline to the game.
The Tornadoes offense will match up with a familiar face, and no, it’s not a player. Greene County defensive coordinator Jacob Aycock spent time in Purvis, and he’s acquainted with Purvis’ offensive personnel.
So, does that give the Wildcats (6-1, 0-1 in Region 7-4A) an advantage?
“Well, he’s familiar with all of our kids and what they’re capable of doing,” Purvis coach Perry Wheat said. “He knows us pretty good, so there might be a little advantage. But, it’s still going to come down to making plays.”
The Purvis (3-3, 1-0) offense got back to its ways last week, though, rushing for 251 yards and five scores while senior quarterback Ty Howell had a 65 percent completion rate with 135 yards.
Senior running back John Bolton tallied his fourth 100-yard game of the season, too, by rushing for 160 yards and three touchdowns. His yards were a season-high. Howell added 82 yards and a pair of scores.
After winning two straight games, Wheat likes what he’s seen compared to when his team was in a funk last month, but there’s still a ways to go in the season.
“I saw a great effort, and that was the No. 1 thing we wanted to see every week,” Wheat said. “I thought our kid played really hard. We’re still not consistent enough in what we’re doing, and we missed some pretty easy throws. We made some good plays at quarterback, but we missed some easy throws.
“We’re still not tackling as well as we need to tackle. That’s kind of the most important thing on defense. I think we’ve improved, but we’re still not there.”
The Purvis defense will have to try to defend a Greene County offense that doesn’t have eye-popping stats, but have collected a ton of wins so far. Senior quarterback Derrick Grice is completing 69 percent of his passes, tallying 1,135 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also leads the team with 298 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 81 carries.
Seniors Kyemonte Walker and Tagg Creech also have more than 50 rushing attempts, as Walker has picked up 287 yards on the ground on 78 carries without a touchdown and Creech has 237 yards and three scores on 51 attempts.
Wheat said his defense will have to play smart and try to confuse the Wildcats before the snap.
“They’re a typical spread offense,” Wheat said. “They’re going to fast-pace you, they’re going to line up and try to call their stuff at the line of scrimmage and take what you’re giving them.
“I think we’re going to have to disguise, be able to make our calls like we want to make them and get in the right spot, because they run a bunch of formations, a lot of motions and things like that. We have to be pretty sure with what we’re doing out there defensively.”
Defensively, not only will Purvis have to deal with Aycock, but the Wildcats are stout on that side of the ball. They did allow Poplarville – the defending 4A South State Champions – to score 54 points, but during the first six games they only allowed nine points per game.
“They’re just really solid. (Aycock) was with us for a long time,” Wheat said. “He’s just done a good job there. They’re based out of a 4-3, but they do some other things. He puts them in the right spot and they’re making some plays.”
