Long Beach is 1-7 against Gautier since October of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Bearcats will challenge the Gators at 7:00 p.m. Given that the two teams suffered a loss in their last games, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.
Long Beach lost 28-7 to South Jones on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Bearcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Mississippi football rankings (they are ranked 157th, while the Braves are ranked 33rd).
Despite the loss, Long Beach got top-tier performance from Junior Brown, who rushed for 92 yards and one score on only six carries.
Meanwhile, Gautier didn't have quite enough to beat Greene County last Friday and fell 24-21.
Long Beach will need to focus on slowing down Keon McNeil, one of several Gautier players who made an impact when they last played. He threw for 260 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and also punched in one rushing score. 90 of McNeil's passing yards were hauled in by A'shaun Tubbs, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
Even if they lost, Gautier's defense still kept up the pressure with four sacks. Demarrion Gainer-Wonsley was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up two himself. He also set a new season-high mark in total tackles with seven.
Long Beach's defeat dropped their record down to 1-4. As for Gautier, they now have a losing record of 2-3.
Long Beach was taken down by Gautier 55-6 when the teams last played back in September of 2022. Thankfully for the Bearcats, Kaden Irving (who threw for 183 yards and four TDs on only 15 passes) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps