The South Panola Tigers will try to avoid that fate tonight as they host Madison Central for a return trip to the North Half Championship game.

The Tigers, still No. 9 in the USA Today national poll, bring a 12-0 record to the game. Madison Central comes in the game 10-2.

Madison Central (10-2) defeated West Point last week 24-15 to advance to the second round of playoffs. The Jaguars finished second in 2-5A for the regular season.

The history between the two is not long and varied but what history there is gets the adrenaline pumping at the thought of these two teams.

South Panola enters the game after a 33-6 defeat of rival Grenada in the first round last week. That score is not really indicative of what happened in the first quarter of the game last week. The Tigers had an unprecedented five fumbles for the whole game and lost four of them.

But the Tigers found their footing, rallied and lived to play another game.

South Panola and Madison Central played in the preseason fall jamboree held at Madison Central in August.

At the end of two quarters, the score was tied 0-0.

"This will be a good football game," said Tiger head coach Ricky Woods. "They will run basically the same offensive scheme that we will run."

In recent history, South Panola and Madison Central met the during regular season in 1997. The Tigers were ranked No. 9 in the state and Madison Central was ranked No. 15. South Panola won that first matchup 44-8, but saw them again in the North Half title game where the Tigers won 40-11 and advanced to the state championship round.

In 1998 the two met in the regular season where the Tigers won 47-7 and again in the North Half where the Tigers only won 21-7. Madison Central defeated Starkville two years straight to get to the North Half round.

In 1999, the teams did not meet in the regular season. The famous one point game was held that year. Madison Central defeated the Tigers 25-24. Madison Central took the lead with just a little over a minute left to go in the game.

The Tigers were driving down the field but an interception by the Jaguars with some 40 odd seconds to go in the game, sealed the Tigers’ fate for the season. For the first time in four years, the Tigers would not make the trip to the state championship.

So 2000 through 2002 the teams did not meet up but lo and behold Madison Central worked its way back up to a playoff position in 2003. The two teams met in the first round of playoffs on Tiger Field.

The Tigers had little trouble with the Jaguars and handed them a 47-3 defeat.

Tim Buckley leads the Jaguars at quarterback with 1,405 yards and 12 touchdown passes. Running back Jonathan Vance had 976 rushing yards for the regular season.

Leading receivers for the Jaguars are Antyon Gray, 576 yards and Nathan Wright 333 yards.

Leading the Tigers is Dandy Dozen quarterback Derek Pegues with 1,093 rushing yards, 549 passing yards and 22 touchdowns.

Leading rusher for the Tigers is tailback Germichael Sanford with 1,358 total yards (61 receptions) and 21 touchdowns. Jeramie Griffin has 629 total yards and 7 touchdowns.

Tickets will be on sale today at the South Panola High School ticket office from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The ticket booth will open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $7. No reserved seats will be sold at playoff games.

With a win tonight, South Panola will be on the road next Friday night for the North Half championship to face the winner of the Tupelo (6-6)/Clinton (7-5) game to be played tonight in Clinton.

Responsible hunters think of safety first and shooting game second. They maintain their equipment so it functions properly and poses no safety threat to themselves or others. Hunters should respect private and public property.

They should always ask for permission to hunt on private land and drive only on developed roadways. A responsible hunter always identifies his/her target, and never takes a shot until certain of the target.

They do not hunt out of season or before or after shooting hours.

Corps personnel would like to remind everyone that there are several regulations governing hunting on public lands managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Any type of permanent deer stand is in violation of regulations, however, portable deer stands can be used.

Deer camps on Corps lands are required to have a Wilderness Camp Permit. These can be obtained from the respective lake field office. No hunting is permitted in or near recreation areas. Hunters should stay completely clear of these areas and leave plenty of space around them to minimize the possibility of an accident.

Anyone found in possession of a loaded firearm in a recreation area will receive a citation and could be required to appear in Federal Court.

I have no idea who said that originally but I sure wish I did. It was in an e-mail sent out by our boss, the Supervisor of Officials for the SEC. He sends us our coach-type "pep talk" on Thursdays to get us ready for another huge weekend with the greatest football in the world. So with my family and SEC football, I can attest that I’ve lived more than I ever dreamed possible.

If you don’t think it’s possible, imagine being on the field at Neyland Stadium with more than 108,000 packed in the house. Then add to that having Notre Dame along with their full band playing that famous fight song. I could hardly breathe at that point and it was still 20 minutes before kickoff. I had occasion to talk to Coach Willingham before the game and briefed him on the SEC TV procedures with CBS and then over to see if Coach Fulmer had any questions and remind him how many breaks CBS takes.

To add to all of that, I had a writer from the Knoxville News Sentinel call last week and interview me for an hour on the phone and then met with me when we got to the stadium.

They had a photographer taking pictures of me during some of the breaks. That was strange to say the least. Most of the time professional photogs want me to get the heck out of their way. They are doing a special on some other aspects of game day and wanted to include me. I did learn something new:

The bands watch me to see if TV is taking the break so they can decide what to play. Although the only thing I ever remember the UT band playing is "Rocky Top." I know the JumboTron operators have someone just to watch me for breaks to run their ads so it’s not like I’m new to being stalked. I know for a fact that I’m typically cussed more than any of the other officials during a game. Now I’ll be wondering who else is watching me.

The only bad thing about the whole deal was the field crew was from the Big 10. They were nice guys and all but being mostly from the Chicago area they just didn’t sound right being in a game at Tennessee.

The Alternate was one of our Referees from the SEC and his Alabama accent helped neutralize the northern ones. I’ve always compared working with crews from other conferences to visiting a distant relative.

You know you’re kin and all that but it still just ain’t quite right. Going to Auburn the next week will be great to be with my own "kind" again.

One thing I keep an eye on when working with other crews is how they work the field or their "mechanics."

These Big 10 guys did not come close to the work an SEC crew does in a game. Our deep officials will converge toward the ball as the play ends and that will mean a good 20-yard sprint sometimes. More if they had a receiver and defender taking them a long way downfield.

Our wing officials, the ones on each end of the line of scrimmage, also come into the ball much more than they did. It always looks better to get a progress spot being in tight than spotting from out at the sidelines. Another reason for that is just the presence of stripes will help prevent those after-the-play shoving matches.

We keep the eyes moving to catch anything that could be starting and I’ve seen on many occasions how just the proximity of an official can stop something bad from happening. At the least, if we can prevent a flag then it’s all worth it.

The one I could not get used to was how their Referee did not come near the ball between plays. He just stayed in the backfield the whole time unless there was a penalty.

In the SEC, we come in to the ball between every play and give the ready for play signal from right at the ball. The only time we don’t is on a no-huddle offense and then the Umpire will stay over the ball until the Referee gets close to position in the backfield so the play isn’t started until we are ready.

We always aim for a steady tempo throughout the game. We don’t do the running to spot the ball for a hurry-up offense like the NFL does. Ideally, we try to have a 12 to 14 second interval from when the play is over until the next ready for play signal.

So, there’s your mechanics lesson for this week. Only problem is those mechanics won’t help much with fixing your truck.