Led by Isaac Brown’s two jolting touchdownruns, the Pearl Pirates cruised to a 24-6 Friday night victory overthe previously unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Brookhaven Panthers.Brown, a powerful 5-foot-10, 192-pound senior, rushed 18 times for126 yards as the Pirates spoiled Ole Brook’s homecoming celebrationon King Field.

    Most importantly, the Pirates improved their record to 6-2 overalland 3-1 in the Region 3-5A race, giving them a piece of secondplace with Brookhaven (6-1, 3-1). Wayne County (6-2, 4-0) grabbedthe top rung after whipping West Jones (4-3, 2-2) 35-7 Fridaynight.

    “I thought we played really well,” said Pearl coach John Perry. “Wehad lost two heart-breakers this season. They (Panthers) were notat the top of their game but we are proud of our guys. There weretwo good football teams out there tonight.”

    Perry’s Pirates took a 7-0 halftime lead on a 38-yard run by Brownwith 2:07 showing. Tyler Poe kicked his first of three extrapoints, later making a 25-yard field goal with 47seconds  left in the thirdquarter.

    On a night of missed scoring opportunities, the Panthers fellbehind 24-0. Homecoming queen Dana Herring and her court watchedtheir favorites suffer a convincing setback after prevailing by a1-point margin in back-to-back region games.

    In the second quarter, BHS achieved a first-and-goal at Pearl’s8-yard line. Three incomplete passes led to a fourth down at the3-yard line. Quarterback Zach Smith was tackled for a 4-yard lossby Pearl’s Evan Osborne.

    Two plays later, Brown fumbled at his 20-yard line and JaboreePoole recovered for the Panthers. Four plays lost four yards andthe Pirates took over at their 24 when a fourth-down pass fellincomplete.

    From there, the Pirates orchestrated an 8-play, 76-yard scoringdrive.  Quarterback StewartSummers completed 4 of 6 passes  for 33 yards on the drive, setting upBrown’s scoring dash down the right sideline.

    Summers (6-1, 200, sr.) completed 10 of 19 passes for 136 yards andsurpassed the 1,000-yard plateau. His 17-yard TD pass to DavidPickering put the Pirates up 24-zip with 9:03 left in the game.

    “Our quarterback is smart and he managed the game real well,” saidPerry. “He can throw and run it.”

    Pearl dominated the third quarter with a 9-play, 72-yard drive onthe opening series that was climaxed by Brown’s plunge over righttackle. The Panthers only ran six offensive plays in the thirdquarter.

    Pearl’s Osborne intercepted Smith at the BHS 25 on the last play ofthe third quarter. That led to the final Pirate TD as Summershooked up with Pickering in the corner of the end zone.

    After the ensuing kickoff, BHS authored an 8-play, 80-yard TDdrive. Wide receiver Fred Trevillion got behind the secondary andtook a pass from Smith 42 yards to paydirt. The Panthers werethwarted on the 2-point conversion pass and trailed 24-6 with 5:52remaining.

    BHS boss Wade Henderson said he was disappointed by his team’sperformance. They were limited to 217 yards total offense.

    “You have to make things work in all three phases of the game,”said Henderson. “Our offense didn’t execute. Everything went chaosin the second half.

    “We have to find a way to put points on the board,” Hendersonadded. “We didn’t execute when we had a chance to score.”

    Junior running back Justin Blue had one of his best games for thePanthers. He rushed 24 times for 91 yards.

    BHS plays its last home game Friday, hosting the Stone CountyTomcats (2-6, 1-3) for a region test.