FOREST — Kemper County’s Eric Clark Jr. and Otis Cross Jr. weren’t even born the last time the Wildcats won a division championship.

And it was a dominate performance to say the least.

Behind a power running game, Kemper County ran past Forest 28-13 to claim the Region 5-3A championship at L.O. Atkins Field on Friday night.

It’s the Wildcats’ (7-2, 4-0) first district title since the 1970s.

Kemper County will face the No. 4 seed out of Region 8-3A, which as of now will be either Seminary or Tylertown, in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs that begins in two weeks. Forest will be the No. 2 seed.

“It is just a tribute to our kids; they have put in the hard work since Day 1,” said Kemper County coach Chris Jones. “We kept telling them hard work pays off, and the kids are starting to understand how to win.”

The Wildcats out-rushed Forest 275-93.

Running back Chandler Roberts had 149 yards on 22 carries and scored on a 38-yard touchdown run with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter to give Kemper a 28-6 lead.

Clark had 46 yards rushing and scored on a 14-yard run with one minute left before halftime to give the Wildcats a 20-6 lead.

“We got two good backs and tonight they were the difference,” Jones said. “They both ran hard and down hill tonight and made multiple guys bring them down.”

Clark did well throwing the ball. He completed 14 of 18 passes for 130 yards with two touchdowns.

Both his touchdown throws went to Cross. The first came on a 16-yard touchdown pass that gave Kemper County a 8-6 lead with 2:28 left in the first quarter.

The other was a 5-yarder with 10:05 left in the second quarter.

“We knew coming in it was going to be which team wanted it more,” Clark said. “I just did my job tonight of getting my guys the ball. We are a dangerous team if we can get our guys in space.”

Cross, who will play in the Bernard Blackwell All-Star game at Gulfport in December, had 88 yards receiving.

“Coach told me to just go out and make plays and I did what he told me to do.. Make plays,” Cross said. “Me and Eric have been on the same page for a long time, so he knows where I am at on the field.”

K’hari Parker had 93 yards passing to lead Forest. He had a 4-yard touchdown pass to Vontae Spivey with 5:26 left in the fourth quarter to cut the Kemper lead to 28-13.

Ranauldrick Murrell had a 2-yard touchdown run for the games first score for the Bearcats (7-2, 3-1).

“The difference was the end of the first half when they scored with a minute to go up two scores,” said Forest coach Jonathan Worrell. “Give Kemper credit they are a good team, but we get to host a first round playoff game and that is huge.”