DeSoto County Football, Sept. 11: Olive Branch Takes the 72nd Meeting, Hernando Falls 60-58 in Double Overtime
OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. — The 72nd meeting between Olive Branch and Horn Lake came down to five points. DeSoto County’s most explosive offense scored 58 and lost. And two county programs are still unbeaten through three weeks.
Friday night in DeSoto County produced a rivalry settled late, a double-overtime heartbreak 150 miles south and a pair of 3-0 starts at Center Hill and Lake Cormorant. Here is how all nine county programs fared on Sept. 11.
Olive Branch 17, Horn Lake 12
The county’s oldest continuously running rivalry went Olive Branch’s way for the 47th time.
As we laid out in Friday’s DeSoto County football preview, the Conquistadors and Eagles came in having played 71 times, with Olive Branch holding a 46-23-2 edge — and with Horn Lake owning the most recent word, a 32-8 win a year ago.
Olive Branch took that back, winning 17-12 on the road to push the series to 47-23-2. The Conquistadors are 2-1 and have won two straight since an opening loss at Shannon, beating Lewisburg 49-30 on Sept. 4 before Friday’s trip to Horn Lake.
Horn Lake drops to 0-3, and the Eagles’ season has been an exercise in narrow margins against familiar company: a 23-16 overtime loss at Center Hill in the opener, a 35-7 loss at Collierville, and now five points at home. Horn Lake has scored 35 points and allowed 75.
Kosciusko 60, Hernando 58 (2OT)
Hernando scored 58 points and lost.
The Tigers went to Kosciusko carrying a 104-7 aggregate margin through two games — 55-0 over Overton, 49-7 over Ridgeway — and led the Whippets 21-7 at halftime. What followed was the highest-scoring game played anywhere in Mississippi on Friday night.
Kosciusko scored on the first play of the second half. Hernando pushed back ahead 37-27, then 44-34. The Whippets closed to 44-41 and tied it on a 36-yard field goal in the final seconds. Both teams scored in the first overtime to make it 52-52. Hernando struck first in the second overtime to lead 58-52 — and Kosciusko answered with a touchdown and the decisive two-point conversion.
Hernando falls to 2-1 with 162 points in three games, the most of any DeSoto County team.
Lewisburg 42, Ripley 7
Lewisburg needed a response after that 49-30 loss to Olive Branch. It got an emphatic one, handling Ripley 42-7 at home behind an offense directed by sophomore quarterback Kaysen Wiggins.
The Patriots are 2-1, unbeaten at home and have scored 98 points in three games. Their September gets no easier: Lafayette on the road Sept. 18, then Center Hill.
Center Hill 19, MASAE 12
Center Hill is the only DeSoto County program yet to lose, and the Mustangs did it the hard way again, holding off Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering 19-12.
It is a third straight win for a team that opened with a 23-16 overtime decision over Horn Lake and a 43-6 win at Cordova. Center Hill has outscored opponents 85-34 and came into the week with junior Trintin Martin averaging 129.5 rushing yards per game.
Lake Cormorant 42, Columbus 6
The Gators are 3-0 and looked it, rolling Columbus by 36.
Lake Cormorant is the county’s highest-ranked team in the Mississippi Football Power Index at No. 20 statewide. The Gators have beaten PURE Academy 27-8, DeSoto Central 14-7 in overtime and now Columbus 42-6.
DeSoto Central: the empty Friday
The Jaguars had the open date our preview flagged as the county’s “one empty Friday.” DeSoto Central sits 1-1 after a 26-25 win over South Panola and that 14-7 overtime loss at Lake Cormorant, and returns Sept. 18 at PURE Academy. The Jaguars are 29th in the MFPI, second among county teams.
Southaven and Northpoint Christian
Southaven’s game at South Panola had not posted a final as of 11 p.m. Friday. The Chargers came in 1-1 after a 21-7 loss to Winona and a 41-0 win over Columbus; South Panola entered 0-2.
Northpoint Christian was at Bayou Academy. The Associated Press reported a 38-21 Bayou Academy win, which had not been confirmed on MaxPreps team pages at press time. The Trojans, who play a Tennessee-based Division II-AA West schedule, were 0-3 after losses to USJ, Memphis University School and Tupelo Christian Prep.
DeSoto County scoreboard — Friday, Sept. 11, 2026
- Olive Branch 17, Horn Lake 12
- Lewisburg 42, Ripley 7
- Center Hill 19, Memphis Academy of Science & Engineering 12
- Lake Cormorant 42, Columbus 6
- Kosciusko 60, Hernando 58 (2OT)
- Southaven at South Panola — no final reported
- Northpoint Christian at Bayou Academy — reported 38-21 Bayou Academy (AP, unconfirmed)
- DeSoto Central — open date
Where the county stands
The last validated Mississippi Football Power Index run before Friday’s games, published Sept. 9, ranked DeSoto County’s eight MHSAA programs this way:
- No. 20 Lake Cormorant — 79.1
- No. 29 DeSoto Central — 75.6
- No. 40 Center Hill — 70.0
- No. 48 Southaven — 67.9
- No. 52 Hernando — 66.7
- No. 65 Olive Branch — 62.9
- No. 66 Horn Lake — 62.6
- No. 123 Lewisburg — 47.2
Expect movement. Center Hill and Lake Cormorant both won again, Olive Branch beat a team ranked one spot ahead of it, and Hernando lost a game it scored 58 points in. The next validated run posts Wednesday at 1 p.m. CT at MississippiFootballRankings.com.
What’s next: the county turns on itself
Sept. 18 brings two DeSoto County matchups in the same night:
- Hernando at Center Hill — a 2-1 Tigers team with the county’s best offense against its only unbeaten
- Lake Cormorant at Horn Lake — the 3-0 Gators against an 0-3 Eagles team that has lost twice to county rivals
- Lewisburg at Lafayette
- Olive Branch at Kosciusko — the Conquistadors get the team that just beat Hernando
- DeSoto Central at PURE Academy
- Northpoint Christian vs. Mitchell
- Southaven is idle
More county coverage: DeSoto County Football Preview: A County of Unbeatens, a 72nd Grudge Match and One Empty Friday · Hernando–Horn Lake, Lewisburg–Southaven headline Thursday volleyball schedule · Olive Branch police attend Donuts With Dads with high school football team · All DeSoto County Sports
Statewide results from Friday night are in our sister publication’s complete Mississippi high school football scoreboard for Sept. 11.
Scores and records verified against MaxPreps team pages. Rankings via MississippiFootballRankings.com. Have a correction or a missing score? Send it our way.
