WOODVILLE — The Wilkinson County High School Wildcats celebrated homecoming with a 34-20 win over the Jefferson County High School Tigers Friday night in a showdown of the top two teams in MHSAA Region 7-3A.

“It’s always good to win at home, especially on homecoming,” Wilkinson County head coach Kenneth Brown said. “Jefferson County played hard. They were down a few players.”

The Wildcats’ offense was led by a 200-plus yard passer, a 100-plus yard rusher and a 100-plus yard receiver. Freddie Byrd III completed 10 of 19 passes for 245 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Terrell Coleman Jr. had 11 carries for 139 yards and two scores. Treveon Miles had both TD catches and finished with four receptions for 145 yards.

“Freddie played pretty good. He threw a pick-6. Treveon, he has come around. He can catch the ball. Offensively and defensively, Coleman was all over the place,” Brown said.

The pick-6 Brown was referring to was Byrd’s pass that was intercepted by Jefferson County free safety Daron Wright, who returned it 10 yards for a touchdown that cut Wilkinson County’s lead to 27-20 with 11:15 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Byrd responded from that bit of adversity by connecting with Miles on a 65-yard touchdown with 9:18 to go.

“It was a very important win for us. It was a big win for us,” Brown said. “It puts us where we need to be.”

Coleman scored on an 82-yard run with 9:48 left in the first quarter and Jeffery Anderson’s extra point gave the Wildcats a 7-0 lead. The lead would blossom to 20-0 in the second quarter on Uqanta’ White’s one-yard TD run with 10:18 left and Byrd’s 49-yard scoring pass to Miles at the 4:55 mark.

Jefferson County scored with 1:14 to go until halftime on a two-yard TD run by Gailrontae Fells. Limarvin Smith Jr. ran in for the two-point conversion as the Tigers went into halftime down just 20-8.

With 5:13 left in the third quarter, Fells scored on another two-yard run to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 20-14. Wilkinson County answered with a five-yard TD run by Coleman to go up 27-14 after Anderson’s PAT.

Fells had a tough night throwing the ball against a good Wildcats’ defense, completing just six of 19 passes for 73 yards with one interception. Jaheime Harrington led the Tigers’ defense with 10 tackles.

The one thing Brown was not thrilled with was the penalties. The Wildcats had 12 of them for 100 yards.

“We still have to deal with the penalties,” Brown said.

Jefferson County (4-2, 1-1) is off this Friday before hosting Hazlehurst High School on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Wilkinson County (6-1, 2-0) plays at Hazlehurst in a key Region 7-3A game this Friday at 7 p.m.

Hazlehurst 40, Franklin County 19

HAZLEHURST — Hazlehurst High School junior running back Larry Wilson accounted for five touchdowns as the Indians rallied to defeat the Franklin County High School Bulldogs 40-19 Friday night for not only their first win in MHSAA Region 7-3A, but also their first win of the 2018 season.

Wilson had 12 carries for 131 yards, including touchdown runs of 20, 17 and 23 yards. He also returned the game’s opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown and added a 64-yard touchdown pass from Jahem Jones, who himself had a one-yard touchdown run.

The match-up of what were two winless teams went back and forth for the better part of the first three quarters.

Franklin County responded to Wilson’s kickoff return at the 11:43 mark with a 64-yard touchdown pass from Jaquan Brown to Darion Jackson just 15 seconds later. Braden Tyson’s extra point gave the Bulldogs a 7-6 lead. Then at the 1:05 mark of the first quarter, Brown scored on a 12-yard run for a 13-6 lead.

Wilson’s 20-yard touchdown run and his long TD reception in the second quarter gave Hazlehurst (1-6, 1-0) an 18-13 advantage at the half. Franklin County got a three-yard touchdown run from Clay Wright to put the Bulldogs up 19-18 with 4:54 left in the third quarter, but that would be the last lead for the visitors as the Indians scored 22 unanswered points for the comeback win.

Jaquan Brown went 6-for-9 passing for 91 yards before leaving the game with an injury in the second quarter. Wright was 2-for-7 passing for eight yards and Charles Hunt was 4-for-9 for 24 yards. Jackson caught five passes for 80 yards. This was Franklin County’s best offensive showing in weeks with 222 yards of total offense.

Keahve Brown led the Bulldogs’ defense with 11 tackles and Tyler Seals added 10 tackles. But for the fourth straight week, they allowed over 300 yards of total offense to their opponent. Hazlehurst finished with 380 yards and 14 first downs.

Franklin County (0-8, 0-2) next plays at Region 7-3A foe Port Gibson High School Friday at 7 p.m.