On paper it looked like the area would see a packed Friday of high school football playoff action but as the week progressed COVID-19 had other plans.

It was a different combination of quarantines, contact tracing, positive tests and school protocols that caused the cancellation and forfeiture of games for Brookhaven High, Lawrence County and Bogue Chitto.

Additionally, the rest of the season for Copiah-Lincoln Community College was canceled this week after the Wolves were able to play just three games in 2020.

Monday the first dominoes fell when Brookhaven High canceled their trip to Pascagoula in the 5A playoffs.

“Our message to them all year has been that we can only control what we can control,” said BHS head coach Tucker Peavey. “We don’t like it and we’re not happy about it, but it’s out of our control.”

Later in the week, it was Lawrence County coach Jesse Anderson who had a similar talk with his squad after they were forced to forfeit their 4A second round game at Sumrall.

“We’ve been talking about scenarios all throughout the season,” said Anderson. “Kind of preparing them for if something like this happened. They took it well and all we can do is just move on, but you hate it most for your seniors.”

Senior for Brookhaven High include Quintaye Bates, Toney Bussey, Vincent Brown, Devion Turner, Jaden Browder, Jon Albritton, Rashad Smith, Jamar Lewis, Larry Harris, Gage Reeves and Zach Jones.

The senior class at Lawrence County includes Quincy Lewis, Jadonovan Davis, Sherrod Ben, Haden Mullins, Jamal Bridges, Adrian Haynes, Tae Cole, Treizjan McClain, Cameron Williams, Nicholas Clark, Willard Baylis, Matthew Smith and Jaheim Jackson.

Bogue Chitto has a senior class made up of 10 players. That group and their team were looking forward to hitting the field Friday night at Scott Central. The Bobcats moved on to the second round after a Puckett forfeit last week.

Unfortunately for coach Gareth Sartin and his bunch, the Bobcats found out Thursday that they’d also be forced to forfeit.

The BC senior class includes Tristan Buffington, J.T. McCaffrey, Reid Smith, Caleb Avants, Sam Etheridge, David “Mac” McKinney, Davis Hart, Josh Sauls, Kyzer Holmes and Hugh Greer.

It wasn’t just this part of the state that was dealing with cancelations as a 6A playoff game between Warren Central and Tupelo was canceled just five hours before kickoff due to a positive test from a Tupelo player Friday.