The Wilkinson County High School Wildcats gave Hazlehurst High School all it could handle, but Indians rallied from a 10-point deficit to take a 40-26 victory in a key MHSAA Region 7-3A game Friday night.

“We turned the ball over too many times. That’s a good football team. You can’t turn the ball over four times and expect to win,” Wilkinson County head coach Kenneth Brown said.

Hazlehurst, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, jumped out to a 16-6 lead before the Wildcats scored near the end of the first half to make it a 16-14 game at halftime. Wilkinson County scored two touchdowns in the first four and a half minutes of the third quarter to take a 26-16 led.

However, any thoughts of an upset win by the Wildcats ended when the Indians scored three touchdowns and three 2-point conversions over the final 17 minutes of the game.

“We had too many turnovers and too many penalties. Poor tackling hurt us, too,” Brown said. “We knew what they were going to do. They had big runs on us because of poor tackling.”

Wilkinson County (5-4, 2-1) plays host to Port Gibson for homecoming at 7 p.m. Friday.