It’s time to lift the lid on the 2024 high school football season for MHSAA programs around the state and the opening week of games is packed with local matchups for the schools in our area. All games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

 

Brookhaven High at Lawrence County

Cougar Field, Monticello

Excluding the COVID-19 cursed season of 2020, Brookhaven High and Lawrence County have met on the football field every year since 1989, with many of those pairings coming to open the season like this 2024 edition of the rivalry.

From 1995 until 2008, the schools played as district rivals, with some memorable matchups during a time period where LC went 14-0 in 1999 and won the MHSAA 4A state title and then Brookhaven High got a 4A title itself in 2004 by finishing 14-1. Fun fact, both schools won their championship games over Clarksdale High.

The 2024 pairing of the schools separated by 20 miles of Highway 84 should be a good one, as they’re both facing similar outlooks to the season. Both schools lost dynamic playmakers in the offensive backfield due to graduation, but both programs have a style of play that should allow them to plug in new pieces and hope to keep clicking.

As the two largest schools in the Daily Leader coverage area, the two schools naturally have the largest offensive and defensive lines in that area. Not to sound too cliché, that’ll be where the game will be won or lost.

 

Loyd Star at Enterprise

Harry Cole Field, Highway 583

Last year at Copiah-Lincoln CC in the KDMC Kickoff Classic, these two schools put on an exciting version of the annual Sting Bowl. The Loyd Star Hornets scored late and then got a game sealing interception to win 35-32 and break the hearts of the Enterprise Yellow Jackets.

The last time the two teams played at EAC, it was a win for the home team in 2020 by a 22-8 final score. That was one cathartic night on Harry Cole Field as the Jackets broke a Sting Bowl losing streak against their county rivals that dated back to 2003.

The 2024 season is the final ride for a large senior class at Enterprise that’s now filled with four-year starters. Loyd Star showed a special ability to win close games last season, as they finished 10-2 with six of those wins coming by seven or fewer points.

Expect this one to be another close game, with the winner being decided by the team that makes the least number of unforced errors. For Enterprise, they can’t afford pre-snap penalties that can make 1st-and-10 into 1st-and-longer. For Loyd Star, they’ll want to be mistake free in special teams, as the Jackets have speed in their return game.

 

Wesson at Bogue Chitto

Troy Smith Field, Highway 51

In 2002, then President Bush choked on a pretzel and briefly fainted. You’ll excuse any Bogue Chitto fans who might feel faint on Friday night when they look at the sideline at Troy Smith Field and don’t see Gareth Sartin there leading the Bobcats.

Sartin, the head Bobcat for football from 2002-2023, now runs the school as head principal. He was replaced by former St. Aloysius, West Lincoln, and Franklin County head coach BJ Smithhart.

The Wesson Cobras and coach Jeremy Loy are coming off a season in which they finished second in Region 7-3A and they beat BC 53-20 last season on the way to an 8-2 final record. The Cobras return virtually their entire roster and have high expectations to be strong again in 2024.

Wesson has the bigger team, in roster size and up front, but Bogue Chitto always trots out a gritty group of Bobcats, something that shouldn’t change, despite the head coaching change.

 

St. Andrew’s Episcopal at West Lincoln

Perry Miller Field, Flea Hop

Both the homestanding West Lincoln Bears and the visiting St. Andrew’s Episcopal Saints will be debuting new head coaches in their season openers on Friday. The Saints from Ridgeland are led by Channing Ward, a former 5-star defensive lineman out of Aberdeen who played at Ole Miss and in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

West Lincoln is in year number one under Johnny Lane Ball, a native of Pike County and former assistant at Brookhaven Academy, Amite County, and most recently North Pike. Ball has been a ball of energy since getting the job in the spring to replace former head coach Brad Bland.

It’ll be one of those fun matchups where neither team really knows what the other one is going to do, but the Saints probably expect the Bears to keep the ball on the ground as they’ve traditionally done in the past.

West Lincoln beat the Saints in the first two meetings between the schools from 2019-2020. SAE holds a three-game win streak since they topped the Bears 24-3 last season in Ridgeland.

 

Brookhaven Academy at Centreville Academy

Tiger Field, Centreville

Brookhaven Academy and first year head coach Ryan Ross will head south to the house that Hurst built to take on the Centreville Academy Tigers.

Centreville and longtime, legendary head coach Bill Hurst have won nine MAIS state titles since the school opened in 1970. The last championship for the Tigers came in 2014. In total, Hurst has won 429 games at CA in a career that includes two different stints at the school.

Last season was a bounce-back campaign for the Tigers as they went 10-3 and finished with the most wins since the 2017 season after going 5-7 in 2022. Centerville, which plays as a MAIS 4A program, notched a 32-21 win over Brookhaven Academy last season.

That game was close early, with each team trading scores before the Cougars ran out of steam and saw the Tigers pull away. For 5A Brookhaven Academy, the key will be executing their split back veer offense and controlling possessions with long drives that end in points.