Maroon Tide looks to keep Admirals at bay

Picayune has won home games over Class 6A opponents D'Iberville and Pascagoula the past two weeks after losing their season opener at Poplarville. The Maroon Tide will be on the road on Friday traveling to Milner Stadium to take on the Gulfport Admirals.

The Admirals, under Eddie Pierce, are 1-2 coming off a road loss to Louisiana powerhouse Rummel on Saturday night. But don't think Picayune's Dodd Lee and his team are expecting an easy go of it on Friday.

"They present a lot of challenges for us. On offense, they have switch to the same offense that Georgia Tech and Navy run. It's has a lot of motion, a lot of different sets that put a lot of responsibility on our defense to stay sound in our assignments," Lee said. "If we don't stay in our lanes, play fundamentally sound each play, before you know it, they'll have someone laying the ball down in the end zone in a hurry."

Gulfport relies heavily on junior quarterback T.Q. Newsome who leads them in rushing with 163 yards on 37 carries and he has scored four touchdowns. Newsome, who transferred from Long Beach two seasons ago, is a handful at 6-2, 205 lbs. Through the air, Newsome has completed 15 of 34 passes for 262 yards and a touchdown. Karlos Dillard, a 6-1, 220 pounder is the fullback and has run the ball 18 times for 91 yards.

"It comes down to our guys being focus each play. One lapse and they'll score. We've got to be locked in defensively," Lee st