By Angie Ledbetter

A record-breaking crowd is expected to watched the clash of the No. 1 nationally ranked South Panola Tigers and the No. 5 Madison Central Jaguars when they battle for a chance to advance to the 6A state championship.

Both South Panola and Madison Central Jaguars escaped with victories last week in the quarter finals. The Tigers defeated Olive Branch 24-13 and the Jaguars defeated Northwest Rankin 27-20.

In Class 6A, the Tigers are No. 1, Meridian stands at No. 2, Madison Central at No. 3 and Oak Grove rounds it off at No. 4.

The teams are no strangers. The last two years they have met in the north half championship with South Panola winning both, 24-21 in 2008 and 36-21 last year.

Madison Central (12-1 overall, 6-1 district) has scored 539 points and allowed 163. They won nine straight games before losing to division rival Northwest Rankin 24-21 on October 29 at home. Their biggest victory margin was on October 15 when they slaughtered Vicksburg 70-12. Their only shutout was the first game of the season when they defeated Hattiesburg 51-0.

Even though school is out this week for Thanksgiving, the team has been practicing each morning. Head Coach Lance Pogue said the team has had a great week of practice with good attitudes.

“It’s always fun to practice the week of Thanksgiving since we don’t have school,” he said. “The kids come in to practice in the mornings and have the rest of the day off to be a kid and enjoy their week off also. It’s still a holiday for them and they are high school kids.”

As far as going on the road to play for the championship, Pogue said it’s no big deal.

“To me it’s not that big of a deal and we’re not putting any emphasis on playing on the road to be honest,” Pogue added. “To get all the way you’re going to have to win some on the road. Last year it fell our way to play at home but some years it falls like this. But, to compete for a championship, that’s part of it.”

Pogue said Madison Central has a great team and a great program.

 “They’ve had it for the last 15 years or better. The last 12 or 15 years they’ve had a lot of National Football League players. Every time we play them, we know they’re going to put great players out there.

“The two times we’ve played them was very intense,” Pogue said. “In 2008 it was a down to the wire game at their place and last year it was a packed crowd with a lot of intensity. We expect nothing less but that’s what you play for and it’s the fun part of it this time of the year.”

Madison Central features senior wide receiver Tobias Singleton, 6’2’, 190 pounds. Singleton is a a high school All-American and highly recruited. He will play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl along with Tiger senior wide receiver Nickolas Brassell that Pogue will coach.

“He’s a great player and capable every play of making a big one so we’ve got to try to find a way to contain him because you’re not going to just stop him.”

Singleton, a Clarion-Ledger Dandy Dozen, has 50 receptions for 730 yards with 11 touchdowns. He also handles the return duties, returning 14 punts for 203 yards, seven kickoff returns for 297 yards and one for a 96-yard touchdown.

Another key player is Joe Price, a 5’10”, 185-pound  senior running back who has rushed 131 times for 1,080 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“Price is a heck of a football player and I think he has offers from Mississippi State University and Ole Miss,” Pogue said. “He’s a dangerous guy and we’ve got to do a good job of hopefully limiting big plays with him.”

The Jaguars are under the leadership of quarterback, Drew Rowell, a 6’3”, 195-pound junior.  Rowell has completed 86 of 153 passes with 16 touchdowns and one interception. He has also carried the ball 133 times for 584 yards with 12 touchdowns.

“With the new quarterback this year, they’re still running the ball but throwing it more than they have,” Pogue said. “They run a lot of options which you have to be really tuned into assignments defensively but we’ve faced that stuff the last two years. He’s a solid passer as far as what they give him and a good steady quarterback who doesn’t make any mistakes.”

Other key players on the offense will be junior running back Hugh Warren, 5’7”, 207 pounds, 95 carries, 654 yards, eight touchdowns and senior running back Connor Goodspeed, 5’10”, 200 pounds, 87 carries, 508 yards with seven touchdowns.

On defense, Stephen Rogers leads the team with 80 tackles, followed by Isaac Glenn, 78, Wesley Jackson, 75 and Chris Crutcher, 72 tackles and four fumble recoveries. Martez Simpson leads the team with eight and a half sacks. Dehendrick Thompson has six interceptions.

“They’re just like they were the last two years on the defense,” said Pogue. “They lost a lot of players last year and had two SEC lineman from last year that are gone but replaced those guys with big defensive lineman with some speed. This year they’re playing Singleton and Price on defense in the secondary kind of like we’re doing with Brassell. That’s a little bit different for them.”

To come out victorious, Pogue said the team has to be in the right spot defensively.

“We’ve got to be at our assignments and not let them beat us on the option,” he said. “Offensively, we’ve got to do what we’ve done the last two years by getting a running game going. When we get an opportunity we’ve got to hit some passes and eliminate penalties. That hurt us a little bit especially last week.”

This time of year is what teams play the regular season for, according to Pogue.

“The team is very excited. They realize if they win this game, they’re in the state championship. It’s been a long season starting back in July when it was 125 degrees and now you wind down here to the end of November. If you can’t get excited now, you’re probably not a football player. Our guys are pumped up and ready for Friday.”

WBLE will go on the air with the pregame at 6 p.m. Kickoff is 7. The game will be video streamed live on ihigh.com. Go to www.panolian.com and access the live stream on the left side.

Over 7,000 viewers viewed last week’s game against Olive Branch.

Tickets to the game are $8. None were sold locally because school was closed. Madison Central will sell tickets from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the main office.

Directions to Madison Central: Take I-55 South for 134.5 miles. Take exit 108, merge onto Main Street/MS-463. Go .7 miles and take a left on Highland Colony Parkway. Go one mile. School is on the right.