The undefeated Bogue Chitto Bobcats face their toughest opponentof the season Friday night when they entertain the defending Class1A state champion Mize Bulldogs. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. atTroy Smith Field.

In other local games, Raymond visits Brookhaven, unbeatenBrookhaven Academy is at Columbia Academy, Bassfield visits LoydStar, Mt. Olive travels to Enterprise and West Lincoln hostsNatchez Cathedral.

Area football action features Franklin County at undefeatedWesson, McComb at Lawrence County, Manchester at Copiah Academy,Wilkinson County at North Pike, Forest Hill at Hazlehurst, Parklaneat Jackson Academy and South Pike at Vicksburg.

Bogue Chitto and Mize bring unblemished 3-0 records to the fieldFriday night. Both teams are ranked in the AP Little 10 Prep Pollthis week. Mize is No. 2 and Bogue Chitto is No. 7.

“They (Bobcats) have a real good football team,” said Mize headcoach Kenny Robinson. “They are large on the line. They have a goodrunningback. Their quarterback (Jacob Leggett) does good jobthrowing the ball. Defensively, they do a good job.”

Mize lost 12 starters to graduation.

“We are 3-0 so far,” stated Robinson. “We have had some goodwins up to now. We are trying to survive every week now. We run amultiple offense including a wing t and a variety of other things.We are kind of balanced this year. We have three equalrunningbacks. Last week against Salem, all three backs averagedabout 60 yards apiece. Our quarterback threw for 118 yards.”

“We have to try to slow BC down,” said Robinson. “They are bigon the line. We need to try to stop their run. They do a good jobof throwing the ball. They play real sound defense.” The Bobcatsdumped Richton 28-6 and Mize hammered Salem 30-0 last Fridaynight.

“It is a big game.” said Bogue Chitto head coach Carl Cole.”They are a really good team. They are well coached. We arefortunate to be coming in at 3-0 with them. We realize who we areplaying.”

Cole said his Bobcats have been working hard all week, knowingthe importance of this game.

“We’ve been working on all the things we need to do to win. They(Bulldogs) have a lot of speed especially on defense. They run theball and throw the ball real well. Hopefully we can make some goodplays at the right time.”

Cole feels Mize has an edge in having played more playoff andchampionship games than Bogue Chitto.

“Everybody is a little nervous and we are trying to handle itproperly,” added Cole. “We know we are going to have to play untilthe end. Mize has been in these kind of ball games a lot more morethan we have.”

In Bogue Chitto’s win last Friday, Dominique Addison directedhis team with 15 carries for 188 yards and a touchdown. DenardFerguson rushed 14 times for 82 yards.

The Bobcats have outscored their opponents 96-23 while theBulldogs have out scored their opposition 77-14.

Brookhaven Academy improved to 3-0 on the season following an18-5 win over Prentiss Christian last Saturday. The Cougars arecoached by Ray Ishee and face their first District 4-AA test of theseason against Columbia Academy.

Powering Brookhaven over Prentiss Christian was seniorquarterback Ben Davis with touchdown runs of one and five yards.Collins Case connected to Jeffrey Waycaster for an 11-yard TD.

Columbia Academy is 1-2 on the season.

Last season, Columbia clipped Brookhaven 28-22.

Loyd Star, coached by Anthony Hart, prepares for another toughteam in Region 7-2A Bassfield this week. The 2-1 Hornets rallied inthe second half last week to take home a 28-20 victory over Class3A Franklin County.

Undefeated Bassfield (3-0) handed East Marion a 42-30 beatinglast week.

Directing Loyd Star past Franklin County was runningback DerrickJohnson with three 3rd-quarter touchdowns. Johnson finished thenight with 28 rushes for 207 yards.

Linebacker Cody Covington, The Daily Leader’s Defensive Playerof the Week, helped the Hornets with 11 tackles and a fumblerecovery.

Enterprise is coming off a 64-13 Region 4 District 7-1A win overWest Lincoln last Friday and now the 2-1 Jackets prepare for adivision test from winless Mt. Olive. The Mt. Olive Pirates fell tothe St. Aloysius Flashes 26-14.

“They (Mt. Olive) are a lot better than their recordindicates,”said Enterprise head coach Ricky Deere. “They haveskilled people. We will have to play well to beat them.”

In the win over West Lincoln, Enterprise was sparked by MontiCroutwell’s 3 rushes for 90 yards. Shermaine Vaughn carried ninetimes for 42 yards followed by Bobby Smith’s 61 yards on fiverushes. Vaughn and Smith scored two touchdowns apiece.

West Lincoln will have its hands full Friday night when theyhost the Region 4 1A Natchez Cathedral Green Wave. Cathedral (1-1)fell to division power Dexter 27-7 last week.

For Coach Roe Burns’ winless Bears, Stacey Fells led with 12carries for 33 yards and one touchdown. Weston Young scored theother TD and carried six times for 38 yards.

Lawrence County, coached by Trent Hammond, had an offensiveshowcase in last Friday’s 55-34 win over defending Class 3A statechamp Magee. The Monticello-based Cougars improved to 2-1 on theseason.

Defending Class 4A state champ McComb (1-2) will also be playingits first Region 6 game of the 2001 season at Lawrence. Thevisiting Tigers, coached by Ted Milton, stopped Tylertown 12-7 lastweek.

Wingback Wayne Hardy, Daily Leader Offensive Player of the Week,rushed for 235 yards on 12 carries and scored four touchdowns onruns of 1, 31, 65 and 44 yards.

Lawrence fell to McComb 25-14 last season.