# 1 Poplarville will face #5 Greene County on Friday night
Poplarville will face off against another undefeated 4A school, Greene County, Friday night at 7pm at The Hornets Nest.
The game is expected to be quite the match up, with both teams ranked in the AP top five 4A schools, Poplarville #1 and Greene County #.5.
Last year the Hornets defeated the Wildcats 60-13, where running back Austin Bolton, played in his similar power house fashion, with 247 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries. Last year’s big win doesn’t take the pressure off the Hornets this year however since Greene County is basically like playing a whole different team.
“No. No it won’t (be similar to last year). They are much improved,” Poplarville coach Jay Beech said. “They are a lot better so I don’t think it’ll be anything like that.”
The Green County, Wildcats led by new coach Michael King are a much better opponent for the Hornets. So far this season it’s been hard to run the ball against Green County. Their defense has been successful in securing their hold and have only relinquished 55 points this entire season.
So will Poplarville’s Austin Bolton be able to break through? So far this season the Hornets are averaging over 30 points per game, with an average of 8.8 yards per carry collectively. Bolton is one of the state’s leaders with 947 yards and 13 touchdowns on 76 carries, but he’s not the only weapon in the Hornets’ arsenal. Tyson Holston (271 yards, 2 TDs), Roosevelt Raine (539 yards, 5 TDs) and Cory Knight (144 yards, 3 TDs) are all key players in Poplarville’s winning offense.
“It’ll be a big challenge for our guys on offense because they do have a strong defensive strategy,” Beech said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us but we’re excited just to get the shot.”
At mid way through the regular season Poplarville is coming off of a bye week, where Greene County will play this season through with out one.
“I think the bye week came at a good time, at the midway point thru the reg season I think we got reenergized rested a little bit and I think now we’re really ready to play,” Beech said. “We’re really excited to be playing again this Friday night and playing against a really good team makes it even more exciting.”
Kickoff is at 7pm at Poplarville. Tune in for the broadcast of the game with Clay Sweet (play by play), Jeff Lossett (color analyst), and Jason Baker (sideline reporter) on wrjwradio.com and the WRJW smart phone app at 6:30pm for the Paw Paw's Campers & Cars Pregame Show.
