NATCHEZ &045; It’s easy for Adams Christian head coach Keith Walters to rattle off the last time Adams Christian was in position to win a district championship.

It was 1982, and he was an assistant.

That Rebel squad, as many will remember, went on to much bigger and better things. On Friday this year’s Rebels can do just as well with the District 3-AA title on the line when Central Hinds visits Bobby Marks Stadium.

Kickoff is 7 p.m. as MPSA schools in the Miss-Lou enter Week 9.

&uot;I told the kids Monday morning this is the cut-and-dry game,&uot; Walters said. &uot;If we win, we win the district. If they win, they win it. It’s cut and dry. That (drought) has kind of been the talk around here. It’s been pretty down for a long time, but we’re trying to change that.

&uot;We’re also trying to have a winning record &045; we haven’t had that since 1989.&uot;

And the Rebels are trying to do all this with a depleted roster. In recent weeks coaches have had to insert players to replace starters out with injury, something the team has battled throughout the season.

The loss of do-everything back Dustin Case and speedy Cole Bradford could have sent the team into a tailspin, but that hasn’t been the case. The Rebels were solid in a 27-7 win over WCCA on Friday night.

The backfield featured Joey Wilson, Lee Dellinger and Brock Vines and finished the game with 221 total yards. Dellinger accounted for 110 on 22 carries.

&uot;(Quarterback) Timmy (Foster) did a good job of managing the game,&uot; Walters said. &uot;I thought we blocked well. If we play consistent, focused, determined and hard like that, we can live with the results. Right now with all the injuries we’ve had, we’ve just got to play hard. We certainly have to do that against a good Central Hinds team.&uot;

The Cougars will be the Rebels’ toughest test in district and were the favorite to win the thing coming into the season. They are fresh off a loss to Manchester last week in what was their second loss of the season following a Week 2 loss to Hillcrest.

Things went wrong in a hurry for the Cougars against Manchester, but they wound up playing a solid second half of football.

The Rebels remain banged up a bit going into the contest with Heath Williams and James Sullivan out. A lot of it will come down to the defense, an area the Rebels have played well of late.

&uot;Our execution is better, and we’re tackling better,&uot; Walters said. &uot;We’ve got to play a solid defensive game and figure out a way to move the ball on them. As long as they play as hard as they’ve played the last three weeks, we can live with that.&uot;

Huntington at Tensas

ST. JOSEPH, La. &045; Thank goodness for tiebreakers. The Chiefs secured the No. 2 spot out of District 7-A thanks to the tie-breaker rule with a convincing win over Tallulah Academy with one district game remaining.

That’s against Huntington in a game that was moved to 7 p.m. Thursday. And no one is taking the game lightly, not after such a solid win last week over such a good football team.

Regardless, the Chiefs will travel to the District 6 champion to open the playoffs Oct. 29.

&uot;It was exciting to see us perform like we did,&uot; Tensas head coach Chris Jacobs said. &uot;We weren’t near perfect, don’t get me wrong. There were a couple of things Tallulah wasn’t totally prepared to stop, and we did a good job of that.

&uot;Coach (Bo) Swilley is ready to get those Hounds (1-3, 3-5) going in the right direction. They’ve got a two-game season coming up. They want to spoil somebody’s season, and I’d imagine they would love to spoil ours.&uot;

The Chiefs (3-1, 5-3) come into the game with plenty more confidence after last week’s win and continue to improve each week. They continue to win the turnover battle, but the offense piled up 281 yards rushing with quarterback Tyler White and backs Cody Hill and Will Ratcliff executing the option attack.

&uot;It’s just something that’s hard to stop in high school football,&uot; Jacobs said. &uot;The kids have to be focused. Hopefully we didn’t play our best game Friday night. Hopefully that’s a level we can stay at for a little while. We’ll see if we can keep that going.&uot;

Bowling Green at Trinity

NATCHEZ &045; That stunning loss in a steady downpour Friday put a big damper on the Saints’ playoff chances, but they still see plenty to play for.

Friday’s home contest against the Buccaneers (1-4, 1-7) is the final home game of the season, and the motivation for these final three games is for a winning record. The Saints (1-3, 4-4) need two wins to meet that goal with road dates at Brookhaven and Central Hinds to finish out.

&uot;Our goal is always to make the playoffs, but we knew that would be a stretch in this rugged district,&uot; Trinity head coach David King said. &uot;I thought it would be an accomplishment to have a winning record. Our goal is to get these seniors a winning season. We’ve overcome so much right now to be 4-4.&uot;

The Saints’ run so far has been an improbable one, but the loss Friday night in the rain to Columbia was unexpected. The Saints moved the ball but had breakdowns at the wrong times, and the Cougars came up with a big pass play midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars were backed up on fourth-and-goal situation at the TE 25, but the Saints tipped the pass near the end zone that Columbia came down with for the deciding score.

&uot;We don’t want to use (rain) as an excuse,&uot; King said. &uot;The other team played in the rain, too. We thought it was our worst performance of the year. We could have put the game away, but we didn’t do it. I think this group was just so spent after the week before against Centreville that I think we just came out flat.&uot;

Brookhaven at Centreville

CENTREVILLE &045; The Tigers can’t get caught looking ahead to next week, as distracting as it can be.

Centreville has to beat a very good Brookhaven team on Friday in order to play for the District 4-AA championship Oct. 22 at Oak Forest.

Amite at WCCA

WOODVILLE &045; The Rams can officially sew up the District 6-A title with a win over struggling Amite School Center.