CLINTON — The “main event” will kick off at 7 tonight with a bang.
Instead of downplaying the importance of their C Spire Wireless “Bright Lights Football” matchup, Louisville and Noxubee County head coaches M.C. Miller and Tyrone Shorter admit what everyone has been thinking for nearly the past year: It is a big game.
Not only will the winner of tonight’s game have the inside track at first place in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 4, but it also will get to earn bragging rights in front of an expected crowd of more than 6,000 at Tiger Stadium and a live television audience on Fox Sports South that will reach nearly 13 million in seven states.
That’s some heady stuff for a prep football game in October, but the nature of the Louisville-Noxubee County rivalry lends itself to showcase events — like tonight’s made-for-TV event — and championship talk.
“We have to win that ballgame,” Shorter said. “There is a lot riding on that game. It is for home-field advantage, and it is for the No. 1 seed.”
Leake Central (4-5, 2-1) plays Louisville in the regular-season finale next week, which means there is a possibility of a three-way tie if Louisville wins tonight and Leake Central wins next week. Noxubee County will play Caledonia next week in its regular-season finale.
Noxubee County is coming off a 21-0 victory at Houston. The shutout was its second of the season and its seventh victory in a row. Shorter said Monday he took the week off from work as a teacher at Noxubee County High to focus on preparations for the game. While he said several times he is glad the game is finally here, he will be equally relieved when it is over because the Tigers will be able to re-focus on accomplishing their second and third goals of the season: Winning a North State title and a state championship.
“People have been talking about this game for almost a year,” Shorter said. “I didn’t realize there was so much work involved in it.”
Regardless of the outcome, Louisville and Noxubee County have clinched playoff berths. The top four teams in 4A-4 will advance to the playoffs, while the top two will get to play host to first-round playoff games.
Noxubee County has put itself in this position thanks to quality depth. The Tigers have built a winning streak even though starting quarterback Deangelo Ballard was injured in a win against New Hope. Starting running backs Ladarrell Hunt and Darrell Robinson — as well as a handful of other key players on both sides of the ball — also missed games due to injures, but Shorter said he has been looking to this game as the point in the season everyone was going to be healthy again.
Louisville defeated Caledonia 42-0 last week. The shutout was its second in as many weeks and its eighth victory in a row. New Hope beat Louisville 17-12 in the season opener back in August.
Miller, who coached at Noxubee County for 27 years and left the school following the 2009 season, said Louisville was still riding high off its 21-20 victory against West Point at the Fall Football Jamboree at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium. Since the loss, though, Miller has been pleased with how his team has responded. He feels the program is close to returning to the status it had when coach Brad Peterson led it to a Class 3A state crowns in 2007 and ’08.
Noxubee County also is trying to get back to the championship level. It defeated D’Iberville 12-10 in the Class 4A state title game in 2008.
“We haven’t changed anything,” Miller said. “The guys thought New Hope would be a pushover, and I kept trying to tell them that New Hope has a good ballclub. They played us hard and we didn’t play well. That opened their eyes. They kind of got ready to play from then on.”
Louisville opened the eyes of many people with the two-quarter victory against West Point. Sophomore quarterback Wyatt Roberts threw three touchdowns to C.J. Bates in the victory. They have continued to hook up in the regular season. Roberts has thrown for 1,288 yards and 16 touchdowns (eight interceptions), while Bates has 43 catches for 631 yards and nine touchdowns. Bates also has thrown a touchdown pass.
Miller said the notoriety those players received might have made them overconfident at first. Now, though, he said they know they aren’t under the radar and that they have to play harder.
The same is true for Louisville. He said people thought the Wildcats would me “mediocre” this season but that thinking changed after playing the Green Wave. To erase that perception and to get Louisville, which has won seven state titles, back to its championship history.
“I think we are almost back to the top,” Miller said. “We ain’t quite there yet, but I think we’re getting better and better, and as long as we keep improving like we’re doing we will be OK.”
Miller said the key to reaching that goal will be getting the Wildcats to play even more physically. He said the team isn’t at the level he and his coaches built Noxubee County to before he left.
The only possible negative for the region champion could be having to face Lafayette in the North State semifinals. The Region 4 winner will be paired with the Region 2 winner, which likely will be Lafayette, which defeated Noxubee County 20-0 last year in the North State title game in Macon.
Noxubee County defeated Louisville 19-12 last season to clinch the Class 4A, Region 4 title. Noxubee County advanced to the Class 4A North State title, where it lost to eventual state champion Lafayette.
Louisville also lost to Lafayette in the second round of the Class 4A North State playoffs last season.
Noxubee County has won four games in a row in the series, and is 9-2 against Louisville in the past 10 years. All but one of the meetings have come in the regular season. Louisville beat Noxubee County 21-20 in its second game in the Class 4A North State playoffs in ’02. That victory avenged a 36-22 loss to the Tigers in the regular season.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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