Friday Night Preview: Vikings Finally Come Home, Cougars Chase Their First Win
North Pontotoc finally opens at home against Alcorn Central and South Pontotoc welcomes a red-hot Mooreville offense, while an unbeaten Pontotoc spends Week 3 on the sideline. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at both county sites.
There is a certain arithmetic to September football, and this week each of Pontotoc County’s three programs is working a different problem.
North Pontotoc, 1-1 after opening the season with back-to-back road trips, finally gets to play in Ecru. South Pontotoc, 0-2 and searching for traction, draws a Mooreville team that put 62 points on the board a week ago. And Pontotoc, 2-0 and the highest-ranked team in the county, has an open date — which, when you are unbeaten and reasonably healthy, is the kind of problem a coach will happily accept.
Here is the slate, and what the numbers say about it.
North Pontotoc (1-1) vs. Alcorn Central (1-1)
7 p.m., North Pontotoc Attendance Center, Ecru
The Vikings have played two football games this season and have not yet played one in front of their own crowd. That ends tonight.
Matt Lindsey’s team opened at Booneville and lost 33-21, then drove to Nettleton and came home with a 45-28 win. Two games, 66 points scored, 61 allowed — a profile that tells you exactly what kind of team this is right now. The offense can carry a night. The defense has not yet proven it can close one.
That matters more than it might sound, because the history in Ecru is unusually blunt on the subject. According to records compiled by the Mississippi High School Football Historical Society at AHSFHS.org, North Pontotoc since 2000 is 114-11 when it scores 30 or more points and 72-7 when it reaches 40. The Vikings cleared both bars at Nettleton. But the same ledger shows North Pontotoc at 19-97 since 2000 when it allows 30 or more — and Booneville got to 33 in the opener.
Score 30, win. Give up 30, lose. Tonight the Vikings would like to do the first without the second.
Who to watch
Junior running back Ladarrius Adkins has been the engine and the scoreboard. Adkins is averaging 86.0 rushing yards per game and another 32.0 as a receiver — roughly 118 all-purpose yards a night — and he already has five total touchdowns, four on the ground and one through the air, per MaxPreps. Nobody else on the roster has more than two.
Behind him, North Pontotoc has been comfortable using two quarterbacks. Sophomore Storm Robinson has thrown three touchdown passes while completing 64.3 percent of his attempts for a 113.7 rating. Junior Cayson Jensen, listed as both a receiver and a quarterback, has completed 70 percent of his throws and run for 75.0 yards per game with two rushing scores — a package that has given opposing defenses two different problems out of the same formation.
Senior Aden Harden is the outside threat, averaging 67.5 receiving yards with two touchdown catches. Sophomore tight end Jack Horton adds 36.0 per game underneath.
Defensively, the tackle chart belongs to underclassmen. Sophomore Easton Hill leads the team at 12.0 stops per game, junior linebacker Carson Hale is next at 7.0 and junior Brody Howell is at 5.5. Freshman Anthony Beckley already has an interception.
The visitors
Alcorn Central arrives from Glen with a matching 1-1 record and a great deal to prove against this particular opponent. Marty Warren’s Golden Bears lost 27-10 at Tishomingo County to open the year, then pitched a 41-0 shutout of Falkner — their most recent shutout, and a reminder that this is not a program without teeth when it gets rolling. AHSFHS records show Alcorn Central is 16-0 since 2000 when it scores 40 or more points.
Getting there is the trick. The Golden Bears are 155-436-3 all-time, a 26 percent win rate across 59 seasons, and their margin for error is thin: since 2000 they are 1-180 when allowing 30 or more points.
Alcorn Central runs the football and does not apologize for it. Senior quarterback Ty Whitten leads the team in rushing at 70.0 yards per game with two scores and has thrown three touchdown passes, though his completion rate sits at 42.3 percent. Sophomore Rylee Brooks adds 56.5 rushing yards a game and junior Ashton Peters another 26.5. That is roughly 153 yards per game on the ground from three backs; no Golden Bear receiver is averaging even 20 yards a game.
The name North Pontotoc blockers will hear all night is senior middle linebacker Jayden Taylor, who is averaging 12.5 tackles and has already logged seven quarterback hurries. Junior Kaidyn Young is close behind at 11.0 stops per game, and sophomore end Cayden Miles has 1.5 sacks.
The series
This one has been lopsided. North Pontotoc leads the all-time series 11-2, an 84.6 percent clip, and the most recent meeting was not close: the Vikings won 55-0 at Glen last September, the third of three consecutive shutouts in that stretch.
Both rosters have turned over since. The 2025 result is history, not a forecast — but it is the kind of history that tends to find its way into a pregame speech.
South Pontotoc (0-2) vs. Mooreville (1-1)
7 p.m., South Pontotoc High School
Two weeks into the season, Jonathan Beard’s Cougars have played one game they could have won and one they never were in.
South Pontotoc opened at home against Bruce and lost 33-28 — a one-possession night, and the kind of loss that stays with a team. A week later at Water Valley, the bottom fell out: 47-3. Through two games the Cougars have scored 31 points and surrendered 80.
Those two results sit on opposite sides of a very clear historical line. AHSFHS data shows South Pontotoc since 2000 is 86-53 when it scores 20 or more points — it scored 28 against Bruce — but just 3-82 when held under 10, which is exactly where Water Valley put them. Defensively the story is starker still: the Cougars are 8-144 since 2000 when allowing 30 or more, and they have now allowed 33 and 47.
Who to watch
A caveat worth stating plainly: South Pontotoc’s statistics on MaxPreps were last updated Aug. 30, meaning the individual numbers below reflect the Bruce opener only and do not include the trip to Water Valley.
In that opener, junior receiver Walker Wise was the most productive Cougar on the field with 93 receiving yards and a touchdown. Senior Dillan Coleman accounted for two scores — one rushing, one receiving — and added 38 rushing yards. Senior Carson Deaton did double duty, running for 46 yards and a touchdown while recording 10 tackles at outside linebacker.
Senior quarterback Jaxon Highlander threw two touchdown passes but completed just 35.3 percent of his attempts. If South Pontotoc is going to keep pace tonight, that efficiency number is the one to fix.
Senior inside linebacker Brayden Patterson led the defense with 13 tackles and a caused fumble, with sophomore Jaiden Bolton adding nine. Junior Isaac Samson has the team’s only interception.
The visitors
Mooreville comes in at 1-1, but that record undersells how dangerous Jacob Massey’s offense has looked. The Troopers lost 34-23 at Ripley, then dismantled East Union 62-21 — 85 points in two weeks.
Senior running back Kason Mathis owns the best individual number on either sideline tonight: 166.0 rushing yards per game, 332 total through two contests, with four rushing touchdowns. Junior receiver Jett Hussey is not far behind at 107.5 receiving yards per game and a county-best five touchdown catches in two weeks. Junior Cameron Cady has thrown five touchdown passes and run for 56.0 yards per game, and sophomore Jerry Meredith gives Mooreville a genuine second receiver at 52.5 yards a night.
The Troopers hit on the other side of the ball, too. Senior middle linebacker Eli Rodgers averages 13.5 tackles per game, and junior Mac Kandel has 11.0 stops per game to go with two sacks and a caused fumble. Mooreville has already intercepted three passes.
The series, and the one number that decides it
Mooreville leads the all-time series 18-11 and won last year’s meeting 24-14.
But here is the crack in the Troopers’ armor, and it is a wide one. Since 2000, Mooreville is 4-122 when it allows 30 or more points — and Ripley got to 34 against them two weeks ago. South Pontotoc, remember, hung 28 on Bruce.
Both of these teams live and die on the same threshold. Whichever one gets to 30 first, history says, walks out with it.
Pontotoc (2-0): Open date
The best team in the county is not playing tonight, and that is by design. Pontotoc’s schedule has an open week built into Week 3, and Baylor Dampeer’s Warriors will spend Friday night resting rather than working.
They have earned it. Pontotoc opened with a 48-14 win at Amory and followed it with a 27-12 win over Houston at home — 75 points scored, 26 allowed, and the No. 65 spot in the MaxPreps Mississippi rankings, well clear of North Pontotoc (108) and South Pontotoc (228).
The formula is not complicated, and it is not a secret. Senior quarterback Courtland Pass is averaging 139.0 rushing yards per game with four rushing touchdowns. Senior back Markavion Jones is averaging 106.0 with four of his own. That is 245 rushing yards a game from two players, and eight of the Warriors’ touchdowns between them.
Junior receiver Walker Chrestman (44.0 yards per game) and sophomore Miles Floyd (35.0) keep defenses honest, and sophomore quarterback Nolan Ashley has been sharp in relief, completing 66.7 percent of his throws for a 136.8 rating.
The defense may be the more impressive half. Senior Simon Butler is averaging 11.0 tackles with an interception and two quarterback hurries; senior Keontae Griffis adds 8.5 stops. Pontotoc has allowed 26 points in two games — and AHSFHS records show the Warriors are 64-1 since 2000 when holding an opponent under 10, against 3-80 when allowing 30 or more.
Pontotoc returns Sept. 18 at Corinth, a program it trails 21-31 all-time but beat 17-14 last season. Region play does not begin until West Point visits on Oct. 9. For now, the Warriors sit at 2-0 alongside Lafayette as the only unbeaten teams in 5A Region 1 — and those two happen to close the regular season against each other on Nov. 5.
Looking down the road
Circle Oct. 23. That is when North Pontotoc travels to South Pontotoc for the oldest rivalry either school has — 57 meetings, with the Cougars holding a 32-25 edge — and this year it carries extra weight, because both teams sit in 4A Region 1 alongside Corinth, New Albany and a 2-0 Tishomingo County club.
Both county programs are chasing something specific in that region. North Pontotoc has five district titles and 19 playoff appearances in its history. South Pontotoc has 13 playoff appearances and, in 56 seasons, has never won a postseason game — an 0-13 mark in first-round play that the 2026 Cougars would dearly like to be the ones to break.
One more thing: watch the sky
The National Weather Service office in Memphis has Pontotoc County under a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon, with a high near 91, and a 50 percent chance of rain continuing through the evening under mostly cloudy skies with a low around 70. Forecasters expected storm coverage to peak late in the afternoon and into the early evening, with damaging wind the primary concern.
Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. Fans should keep an eye on school and athletic department channels for any weather-related delay, and should expect a wet football at some point in the night — which, for two teams that want to run it, may be less of an inconvenience than usual.
Tonight at a glance
| Matchup | Records | Site | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcorn Central at North Pontotoc | 1-1 / 1-1 | Ecru | 7 p.m. |
| Mooreville at South Pontotoc | 1-1 / 0-2 | Pontotoc | 7 p.m. |
| Pontotoc | 2-0 | Open date | — |
Tickets for both county home games are available through GoFan, and both are scheduled to be streamed on the NFHS Network.
Records, individual statistics and state rankings via MaxPreps as of Sept. 11, 2026. Individual statistics reflect each program’s most recent MaxPreps update; South Pontotoc’s player statistics were last updated Aug. 30 and cover the season opener only. All-time series records, historical win-loss splits and program history via the Mississippi High School Football Historical Society (AHSFHS.org). Forecast information via the National Weather Service office in Memphis.