Pascagoula beats Picayune 42-35 giving Maroon Tide its first loss

Audio replay (Click Here)

Pascagoula—The Pascagoula Panthers played near perfect football to give Picayune its first loss of the season by a score of 42-35 at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Picayune’s first drive ended with a fumble at the Panther 15 after the Maroon Tide had held the ball for 11 plays and nearly five minutes.

On the first play after the fumble, Pascagoula’s Keilon Parnell, a dual threat quarterback, took the snap and appeared to be running a keeper around left end, but he stopped and lofted a perfect pass to Jaylan Thompson for an 85 yard touchdown.

Picayune’s possession after the kickoff resulted in a 17 play 73 yard drive with Dorian Robinson scoring on a 1 yard run with 9:26 left in the second quarter. Morgan Craft’s extra point tied the game at 7-7.

Four plays after the Picayune kickoff, Parnell threw the second of his four touchdowns with a 28 yard pass to Brennan Grubbs with 6:33 left in the half.

Picayune again ended a drive deep in Panther territory with a fumble at the Pascagoula 25.

The Maroon Tide held the Panthers and forced a punt which only made its way to the Panther 46. On the first play after the punt, Isaac Hickman threw a touchdown pass to Austin Samples (pictured) and Craft’s extra point made it 14-14 with 2:11 left in the half.

Parnell threw a 42 yard touchdown pass to Thompson on the fourth play after the kickoff with the clock showing 1:10 to play in the half to give the Panthers a 21-14 lead.

Picayune was able to move the ball down, but missed a 37 yard field goal.

Pascagoula scored on the first possession of the third quarter on a 10 yard run by Keyvon Barnes with 8:41 on the clock.

Picayune answered on its first possession with a 25 yard run by Samples with 3:21 left in the third quarter to cut the Panther lead to 28-21 after Craft’s point after was good.

Pascagoula Tavion Evans returned the Maroon Tide kickoff to the Picayune 8 yard line and two plays later Parnell ran it in for a 7 yard touchdown with 2:32 left in the third quarter.

Picayune came back and scored in 4 plays with the touchdown coming on a 56 yard touchdown pass from Hickman to Noah Carter with :46 left in the third quarter. Craft converted the point after to make it 35-28.

Parnell again pushed the margin to 14 points with a 12 yard touchdown pass to Thompson with 9:41 left in the game to give Pascagoula a 42-28 lead.

Picayune was held on downs and Pascagoula took over at the Maroon Tide 25. The Maroon Tide held the Panthers on downs at the two yard line and got the ball back with 3:15 left.

On second down, Samples busted loose for a 78 yard run to put the ball at the Panther 20. Hickman scored four plays later on a 1 yard run with 1:22 left to make it 42-35 after Craft added the point after.

Picayune attempted an onside kick that was safely fielded by the Panthers at their own 48. Picayune held the Panthers on downs and got the ball back at the Picayune 48. After two incomplete pass attempts, Pascagoula sacked Hickman to end the game.

Samples finished with 19 rushes for 216 yards. Hickman completed 6 of 13 passes for 150 yards.

Picayune (8-1, 5-1) will host Wayne County on Friday.