Every week we’ll give you a schedule with all the high school football action for the upcoming Friday Night Lights, including the Brandon Ciaramitaro, State Farm Game of the Week.

Brookhaven Academy at Clinton Chrisitan

The last time Brookhaven Academy was on the field, the Cougars ended the 2024 season with a 23-7 win at Amite School Center. The Cougars and second year head coach Ryan Ross would like to start a winning streak with a road win tonight at Clinton Christian in Hinds County.

BA is 2-0 all-time against the Crusaders, who only started playing football in 2009. Clinton Christian has a new head coach in Sam Vincent this season.

Ross has increased participation, with 37 players listed on the roster for the Cougars including a 12-man senior class that includes Carson Mowdy, Braxton Orr, Joe Joe Williams, Walt Smith, Teague Russell, Wilson Calcote, Glen Lewis, Caleb Authement, Rocco Smith, Cole Spencer, Drake Strange, and Beckett Tullos.

The Cougars are going away from the split-back veer to an offense where they’ll operate out of shotgun with junior Will Newell running things at quarterback.

This is a game that BA players, coaches, and fans want to win, as their schedule has been packed with MAIS heavyweights over the last few seasons and they’ll head into this one as a favorite, despite it being on the road.

I see the Cougars coming back down Highway 55 with a win.

Parklane Academy vs. Jackson Prep

The powerful Jackson Prep Patriots will invade Coward Smith Stadium and Charlie Newlon Field to take on the Parklane Pioneers in an MAIS matchup.

Prep will dress over 80 players and is coming off a 12-1 season where they dropped their championship game matchup last season to Hartfield Academy. One of the wins last year for the Patriots was a 48-12 victory over Parklane.

PA coach Ron Rushing knows his Pioneers are good and he also knows they are going to be underdogs tonight, despite JP being 0-1 after losing 48-13 last week to Battle Ground Academy out of Franklin, Tennessee.

For Parklane, much of the roster returns after the Pioneers won the MAIS 4A state title last season.

That 2024 championship was the first for the Pioneers since 1994.

The last time for Parklane to beat Prep?

It was 1995, a game won by the Pioneers 6-0.

If you are a fan of football, then you need to see the teams like these two that reside in the upper echelons of the MAIS ranks for yourself.

Parklane beat North Pike 20-0 last season and defeated Choctaw County 22-21, the same Choctaw County that went to the MHSAA 3A championship game.

Prep also picked up a win over an MHSAA foe last year, steamrolling tradition rich West Jones 42-7.

There’ll be big-boy football being played on Newlon Field, but the depth of the Patriots will likely be the deciding factor against the Pioneers.

South Pike vs. Bay Springs

High school football and all the good that it represents can be cathartic, especially when a school and a community are facing difficult times.

The fine folks in Magnolia have been facing the most difficult times imaginable over the last 10 days, after the sudden passing of 8th grade football player Tra’Derric Hall.

The school held a balloon release and candlelight vigil to honor his memory.

The Eagles cancelled their jamboree last week to grieve and it feels like everyone in the community is ready to come together and watch their favorite team play football again after a 9-2 season last year.

The first opponent should make for a really good game on Colee Field, as 2A Bay Springs went 9-4 last season and always has a tough nosed team that competes at a high level.

When you play for something bigger than yourself, you often find teams that are willing to do whatever it takes to win.

With the Eagles playing for the memory of the young man everyone called Drip, only a fool would pick against South Pike tonight.

Wesson vs. Bogue Chitto

They didn’t keep the score on the board last week when Wesson went to Crystal Springs for a jamboree, but the Cobra Air Raid offense, I like to call it Snakes on a Plane, scored on nearly every third snap of the night.

Bogue Chitto, who has dropped down to the 1A class, will need to be sure in their tackling to slow down the Cobras.

There is something about seeing Wesson play on the wide turf expanse of Stone Stadium on the campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

The Cobras line up wide, and they run wide and fast and they know how to turn a game into a track meet, which is to their advantage.

There is a lot of turnover on the roster, but after 10 years at the school, head coach Jeremy Loy always has another batch of guys ready to step up and step in.

For second year coach BJ Smithhart and his Bobcats, they’ve got experience returning in junior running back Jayden Poole and second year starting quarterback Alex Michael Roberts.

BC will battle for a region championship later in the year, but they’ll be hard pressed to keep up with the speedy snakes tonight on the turf of Stone Stadium.

The Brandon Ciaramitaro, State Farm Game of the Week

Brookhaven High vs. Lawrence County

Don’t expect the overnight deluge to slow down the fans that’ll pour into Panther Park and the visiting bleachers of King Field tonight to see Brookhaven High host their Highway 84 rivals from Lawrence County.

Both teams are debuting new head coaches in Darien Dorsey at Brookhaven High and Benjie Merchant at Lawrence County.

Dorsey moved up to head coach after previously being the offensive coordinator for many years. He inherited a roster that returned in near entirety from a MHSAA 5A state semifinals a season ago.

The Panthers have a little bit of everything when it comes to size, speed, and talent.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that’s picking against BHS to make a deep run in the 5A playoffs.

Merchant knows what top talent looks like though, as his job prior to Lawrence County was serving as defensive coordinator at the powerhouse Oak Grove program.

The Panthers won 28-12 last season in Monticello and have won two games in a row in the series and I expect that number to move to three after Friday night.


Other matchups around Southwest Mississippi include:

Copiah Academy vs. Madison-St. Joe

Crystal Springs at Jim Hill

Enterprise at North Forrest

Franklin County vs. North Pike

Loyd Star at Perry Central

McComb High vs. Tylertown High

West Lincoln vs. Richton High