By By Dale McKee / EMG sports writer
Oct. 18, 2002
It does not get any bigger than this: Oak Grove at Wayne County.
In fact, it should be the top high school football game in the state this week. Will it live up to it's billing?
Upstarts Wayne County and Oak Grove meet in one of the most important games of the high school football season. Both teams are 7-0 overall and 3-0 in region play. Kickoff for the game is 7:30 p.m., and an overflow crowd of 6,500 plus is expected to attend.
Wayne County is ranked No. 1 in the state in the Associated Press statewide football poll while Oak Grove entered the top ten at No. 7 this week.
Wayne County High School has been in existence only 12 years while Oak Grove was a struggling 4A football program and had a hard time beating 2A teams only a few years ago.
Enter War Eagle head coach Marcus Boyles and Warrior head coach Nevil Barr, and results happen.
Three years ago Bobby Hall was lured to Waynesboro to try to put Wayne County on the football map. In his opening remarks to the local media Hall said, "Wayne County just got into the football business."
One year later, Hall left for Northeast Junior College, and his longtime friend and assistant Marcus Boyles took over as head of the program. Hall won 10 games
that first year, and Wayne County made it to the second round of playoffs before falling to Moss Point. Boyles took over last fall and went 9-2 in the regular season
before falling to Biloxi in the opening round of the playoffs.
last season's team. The difference this season is their offense. They are playing well."
Seminary at Bay Springs
Bay Springs won a big game in division 7 2A last Friday night in defeating homestanding Taylorsville 9-6 in overtime. The Cecil Hicks Bulldogs improved to
1-1 in the district and 4-3 overall and now hosts undefeated Seminary (7-0, 2-0) tonight in Bay Springs. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
It was ironic that the game ended 9-6 because that was the score of last season's game that Taylorsville won between the two rivals.
Next up for Bay Springs is the vastly improved Seminary Bulldogs riding a seven game winning streak. "They are not a fluke," Hicks said. "You do not win seven games
without having a good team."
Hicks will have to worry about the two explosive Cooleys, Cory and Derwin, of Seminary. "They are both potential college players, and they are really explosive," stated Hicks.
kids will come out and prove that they do."
Last Friday night they improved to 7-0 with a 48-28 win over Bassfield. The test comes in the next three weeks when they face Bay Springs, Taylorsville and
Enterprise.
Taylorsville at Enterprise
The Tartars were surprised last week by Bay Springs while Enterprise was blanking Sumrall 26-0. Zeb Swain, Davion Dixon, Patrick McLaughlin, and Kelly Jimmerson all scored for the Clarke County Bulldogs.
Taylorsville won last year's battle 49-24. Vance Mathis scored the only Tartar touchdown last week.
Stringer at Natchez Cathedral
The Red Devils had two scoring runs by Tipston Garner of 25 and 35 yards in their loss to Mount Olive. Josh Anderson scored the other Red Devil touchdown on a one-yard sneak. Cathedral dropped Enterprise-Lincoln 31-8 last week.
Greenwood at Heidelberg
The Oilers topped Philadelphia 12-7 in a big division win last week and steps out of region play this week to meet Greenwood. Last season the Oilers only won two games, and Greenwood was one of them with a 38-12 win at home. Grenada topped Greenwood 21-6 last Friday night.
Sylva-Bay at HA
Sylva-Bay travels to Heidelberg this week for a 7:30 p.m. Jasper County showdown. The Saints are coming off a tough 7-6 loss to Presbyterian Christian of Hattiesburg last
Friday night. The Rebels hit the road and brought back an exciting 24-21 win over Oak Hill. Heidelberg improved to 7-1 overall while the Saints fell to 3-5 overall.
The Rebels have won the last five meetings between these two teams. Even though this is a division game, it will bear no importance on this
year's standings since Heidelberg (5-0) has already wrapped up the district title and the Saints will not make the playoffs.
breaks. We have great respect for them, and I think it will be a heck of a game."
Wayne at Central
The Jaguars had the week off and will get back into division play by traveling to Macon to take on the Central Vikings. The Jaguars will need a win over Kemper next
week to wrap up a playoff spot. Kemper is 3-2 in the division and will play non-division foe East Holmes this week. Central lost to Hebron Christian 22-12 last week.
NE Jones at Quitman
Both the Tigers and Panethers are 2-1 in Region 5-4A and tied for second place with Mendenhall behind front-running West Jones.
Quitman coach James D. Holloman coached at Northeast Jones for three years, serving as head baseball coach and assistant football coach.