Hattiesburg (Miss.) came into Saturday's contest ranked No. nine in Mississippi, but was stunned by
Meridian (Miss.), 42-13. Meridian was ranked at No. 17 in the MaxPreps Freeman Rankings for Mississippi coming into the week.
The Wildcats were up 14-7 at the half after taking the lead on a touchdown pass by
J-mar Smith to
Richard McQuarley L in the second quarter.
Meridian expanded its lead to 14 points entering the fourth quarter. MHS's lone score in the quarter came on a touchdown run.
A 21-point fourth quarter was enough to cement the win for the Wildcats, as they pushed the final margin of victory to 29.
The Tigers'
Evinn Watson played well. The senior kicked one extra point.
McQuarley L stood out for Meridian in the win. The junior running back ran for one touchdown and caught one touchdown. He has now scored six touchdowns on the season.
Hattiesburg came in allowing just 14.0 points per game this season. HHS struggled against MHS, which came in averaging 20.4 points per game. The Wildcats came in allowing an average of 18.6 points per game this season. The defense really stepped up, holding the Tigers well below their season average of 31.6 points scored per game.
MHS also won the meeting between the two teams last season, 14-6.
The win was a nice bounce back for the Wildcats, which lost to Natchez last week, 54-41.
Meridian (5-1) will play a 6A Region 3 game against Oak Grove next week, while Hattiesburg (4-2) will take on Terry also in a 6A Region 3 game.
This story is based on information MaxPreps obtained from Qwixcore reports. Qwixcore, MaxPreps new live-scoring tool, allows fans to serve other fans by reporting live scores of games from their phones. Occasionally, errors may occur and are usually a result of incorrect data input. For more information on Qwixcore, or to find out how you can Qwixcore your game, please click here.
