Every week, Cliff Furr is Talking Ball, Y’all with a new weekly column that’s presented by our partners at Toyota of Brookhaven.

I’m not big on prognostication, but I told everyone I talked to this week that I thought Brookhaven High would come out and get after Laurel High on Friday.

Boy, did they.

Final from King Field in the MHSAA 5A South State Championship.

Brookhaven High 31, Laurel High 6.

The Panthers were in this spot a year ago and lost in a heartbreaker at Gautier by two points.

I felt like that experience would sharpen the resolve of BHS.

The teams had faced off earlier in the season, a close win (14-6) for Brookhaven High at Laurel.

At that time, Brookhaven High was still figuring things out and playing the Golden Tornadoes Between the Bricks has always been a house of horrors for the Panthers.

I thought this veteran team, that has gelled as the season went along, would show that they were the class of 5A South football and they lived up to those expectations magnificently.

I didn’t post a video of me yelling those takes into the camera for clicks, but I knew it in my football loving heart.

Laurel came in with a 6-6 record overall and had knocked off the other 5A South region winner, Stone High, last week on a last second field goal.

The teams swapped punts early on Friday, as both defenses were playing with aggression and speed.

Each side started the game with two consecutive 3-and-outs.

A turnover set up the first score for BHS, as the Laurel quarterback dropped back to pass and threw a ball that sailed high and short of its intended target, as he was hit while tossing it.

Brookhaven High senior defensive back EJ Ratliff, a Copiah-Lincoln CC commit, is also a pretty good baseball player.

Ratliff looked like a centerfielder, running towards a pop-up. He snagged the interception and returned it down to the Laurel High 26-yard line.

BHS junior quarterback Jaden Allen found senior receiver TJ Smith one play later and Smith hauled it in and kept fighting until he fell over the north endzone.

The touchdown came with 5:12 left in the first quarter and set off a raucous celebration to put the Panthers up 7-0.

Laurel answered immediately. Finding some success on a drive where they beat the BHS pressure with a screen and then were later aided by a penalties for the Panthers.

A 39-yard touchdown run by Laurel pulled them to within 7-6 in the first quarter, but that would be it for the Golden Tornadoes when it came to explosive plays for the rest of the night.

The Panthers looked sure to score again, with the ball on the LHS 1-yard line and facing second and goal, but a quarterback sneak was stopped and then another try got hit with a penalty and then another penalty pushed the ball back even deeper.

Isaac Iles hit a 37-yard field goal that put BHS ahead 10-6 in the second quarter.

The game broke for Brookhaven with two plays in the second quarter – one for the offense and one for the defense.

The first one came with 2:36 left before halftime.

Allen scrambled to his left and saw that senior Dreamus Harron Jr. had gotten behind the LHS defense.

Allen squared himself to the line of scrimmage and ripped off a deep throw.

Harron turned and ran backwards as the ball tracked towards him, with a pair of Golden Tornado defensive backs closing fast.

The ball hit Harron in his hands and bobbled around for a beat. The momentum of the first arriving defensive back slammed into Harron, allowing him to secure the ball between them.

It went – Dreamus, ball, falling down defensive back – and a little over 70 yards later, it ended with a touchdown for BHS.

If you were stading on the sidelines at this point, updating a Facebook page for Y’all Sports, you might have gotten your phone out and written out a status with the score 17-6 and a description of Harron’s big catch.

Just waiting for halftime to hit, so you could mash publish and let the people know what was going on at King Field.

With 28 seconds remaining in the second quarter, you’d then have to go back and erase all that, because the Panthers had one more really cool moment up their sleeves.

Remember that time Odell Beckham made his iconic one handed catch?

Ratliff did something similar, jumping high into the air and reaching back with one hand to snag the ball. I had him around the 3-yard line when he took possession, but I’ve seen others say it was closer to the goal-line.

He ran up the visitor sideline and it looked like Laurel might close in and bring him down around midfield.

Ratliff, who was outstanding all night in the kick return game, escaped the scrum, without one or both of his cleats apparently, and ran following a convoy to the endzone.

Brookhaven High 24, Laurel High 6.

There were 26 seconds left until halftime, but with the lift those two plays gave the BHS sidelines, it might as well been 26 seconds left in the game.

These Panthers would not be denied.

I’m almost 1,000 words in and I might just add another 1,000 to describe the Ole Brook defense.

The line is led by the triumvirate of Jeremy Bibbs, Derwin Fields, and Fabian Washington Jr.

Bibbs, a senior end committed to Co-Lin, brings speed, quickness and strength on one end. Fields, a junior who holds offers from all the best football programs in the nation, is a mirror image on the other side.

Washington provides the bulk at the tackle position. One thing that BHS figured out as the season wore on is a rotation for the other tackle spot beside Washington.

Two offensive linemen, senior Randy Jones and junior Phillip Tobias Jr., take turns swapping series at defensive tackle and that’s made the unit better.

Senior linebacker DJ Washington is the captain of the defense. He and his sophomore counterpart Hampton Smith flow to the football wherever it goes, as it’s usually going way from the pressure created by the ends.

Finding that third linebacker was another question mark that the Panthers faced coming into the season and on Friday, junior Zakobi Washington showed he’s that guy.

Harron and Ratliff are good wherever you put them as defensive backs, but they were able to play tight coverage on some talented wideouts for Laurel from the cornerback position on Friday.

LHS senior wideout Zechariah Jenkins is 6-foot-3, 180-pounds and is committed to next play at the University of Memphis. I don’t have official stats, but I only remember Jenkins catching one pass of consequence all game, as he was blanked in coverage.

Sophomore defensive back Tanner Hardy has been outstanding all season in the back end of the Panther defense and that position group has recently gotten back junior Cortavian Dixon from an injury. Sophomore Mario Smith also came in as a nickel back on Friday and gave his team some great reps.

When BHS received the ball to open the third quarter, they put together a mashing drive of mostly running plays that culminated in the final score of the game, a touchdown scamper by senior Caiden Quarles.

The drive ate up six minutes of clock time as Quarles leaned on his offensive line of Jones, Tobias, Benton Turner, Coderro McDaniel, and RJ Henderson.

The aforementioned TJ Smith has battled injuries and his return to full health has helped the passing attack, which also has Freshawn Stewart continuing to emerge as a target for Allen.

Allen did it as he’s done it all year on Friday, by picking his spots on when to give the ball off to Quarles and when to keep himself. His ability to scramble puts pressure on a defense and he’s quick as a hiccup when he decides to take off.

BHS also got good long snapping from Elliot Peavey, punting and kickoffs from Crews Stewart, and extra points from Iles.

The BHS coaching staff had their guys tuned in and turned up for this one.

First year head coach Darien Dorsey told his squad to enjoy the win, but know that their coaches would be in on Saturday to break down film and that on Sunday, practice would be held and the preparation for West Point would begin.

There are three undefeated football teams left in Mississippi.

The perennial powers at West Point High are one of that trio. West Point beat Holmes County Central 20-6 on Friday. West Point is the defending 5A state champs, they’ve won more titles than any school in the state, and they beat Brookhaven High in 2010 when the teams last met for a state championship.

I can guarantee this, they’ll get the best effort that Brookhaven High can throw at them next Thursday at 7:30 p.m. when the Panthers and Green Wave meet for the 5A State Championship at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville.

Reaching this point has been the goal for BHS football since the final horn sounded on the 2024 season.

The Panthers are here, playing for a state championship, and they’ve got a whole lot of people ready to follow them to Starkville to watch them on the biggest stage that high school football the Magnolia State has to offer.

Can’t wait to see it, Y’all.