Brandon – Pearl Back at The End of the Season where it should be
This week is the renewal of the Rankin County Super Bowl between Brandon (9-2) and Pearl (4-6) as the two schools tie it on for the 65th time. The series started back in 1949 and Brandon leads the series 40-23-1 and is currently on a three game winning streak in the series. Pearls last victory in the series came back in 2011, a 27-20 win in overtime.
This year’s game is finally back where many feel it belongs – at the end of the season. You won’t find many things these two agree on, but if you talk to both sides – this game deserves a season finale and should be played as the last regular season game.
Back in the day this game was just that, a regular season rivalry played at the end of the year like a lot of great football rivalries. This game was even a part of a double header for a few years down at Veterans Memorial Stadium, but all that ended when Brandon went to 5A, then the new 6A and Pearl stayed a classification below the Dogs.
The game was then moved to the front of the schedule to accommodate region play for both schools, but the atmosphere was still the same as this game has been called one of, if not the biggest rivalry in Mississippi high school football.
Only 7.8 miles separate downtown Brandon from the Pearl City Hall, and the town lines blur off of Highway 80 near Fox Hall Road and Walmart.
An unusual slogan is always passed around and the loser has to hear “Eat Dirt” – a saying many say, “I really don’t know where the ‘Eat Dirt’ stuff came from,” and one former coach said “I have heard about a thousand stories of why they say it, and I really don’t know where it came from.”
Now the Bulldogs and Pirates are back together again, this time in Region 3 in 6A after last year’s reclassification and many figure this game, at the end of the year, with both teams in the same region make the game even bigger, and folks are right.
Playoff implications and division titles on more years than not will loom and this Friday is no different.
While Pearl hasn’t had the season they would have like to had, and will miss the playoffs – they get the chance to wreck Brandon’s season this Friday over at Louis Gene Strickland Field.
Brandon currently sits number one in Region 3, but can ill afford to slip up against Pearl this Friday. Oak Grove is right on the hills of the Bulldogs and will likely defeat Jim Hill Friday night, so they will be the Pirates biggest fans.
The Pirates had a big lead on Oak Grove just last week, but let it slip away as the Warriors defeated Pearl 51-47 in double overtime.
A Brandon win would give them four straight victories in the series, their third straight region crown and the number one seed in south 6A going into next week’s playoffs.
A Pearl win can wreck all that and give them 365 days of bragging rights and don’t think both teams don’t know what’s at stake this Friday. This is rivalry football at its best and its back on the last week of the season where it belongs – Its Brandon and Pearl and someone’s about to eat dirt again.