Drew Causey remembers Oak Grove’s win over Pearl in 2015 like it was yesterday. In double overtime, Charles Hartfield found Jordan Duncan for a 10-yard touchdown, as the Warriors escaped with a 51-47 win.
The situation and circumstances are different now, but Causey is hoping for similar magic come Friday night at Ray Rogers Stadium. Most consider Pearl the front-runner in Class 6A. The Pirates are 10-0 and have looked nearly unstoppable the last few weeks.
On the other side, the Warriors are 5-4 and have to win their final two regular season games just for a chance at making the playoffs.
“Our goal is to still try and get in the playoffs and see what happens,” Causey said. “We gotta win out. Doesn’t get real easy, because we’ve got to go to the No. 1 team in the state.”
Really, it’s just another week in the life of a coach or player in Region 3-6A. Every week’s a test with teams like Pearl, Brandon, Petal, Meridian and Terry all piled into one district. Not an easy task.
“There’s maybe two teams with a losing record,” Causey said. “Still, those teams can be competitive and be good football teams. If there’s a tougher region on any level, I’d like to see it.”
Causey’s Warriors are coming off a 52-33 road loss to Brandon. The Bulldogs only led 28-20 at halftime of that game and eventually pulled away thanks to a few errors from the Warriors.
“We made some bad mistakes on third down,” Causey explained. “They scored three touchdowns on third and long. Then we had a couple of turnovers, offensively. We fought till the last play. I think it was a little bit closer than what the score said. We just gotta play better.”
That starts this week in a critical spot against Pearl, who Causey says is as advertised.
“They’ve got a really good football team. The first time we played them two years ago, a lot of those guys starting right now were sophomores and a lot were playing for them as sophomores. They got a really good team.”
“For us, we’re going to try to go up there and have fun. And play loose and see what happens.”
