CENTREVILLE &045; You don’t want to be around when Centreville gets its grind-it-out, push-your-around style of offense going.

Actually, you really don’t want to be on defense in that situation.

The Tigers had trouble in the first half doing what they do best, but when everything started clicking in the second half, the Yellow Jackets were in trouble. The Tigers got a key touchdown on a break in the first half and held on to it most of the second half to get a 10-0 in the Class AA South State championship.

The Tigers will move on to the state championship game Thursday against Simpson Academy at Mississippi College. It’s their first trip to state since 1999.

&uot;Everybody played hard and supported each other,&uot; lineman A.J. Dooley said. &uot;It just took teamwork to stay in it like that. That’s what pretty much won it for us. Offensively, we did all right the first half, but the second half the offensive line started stepping up. It was just a team effort &045; there really were no superstars in this game.&uot;

Give the Yellow Jackets credit for playing solid defense in the first half and early in the second half, but the Tigers bested them on defense in this slugfest. Neither team had success moving the ball, and it really came down to just a couple of big plays on both sides.

The Tigers, though, put together their best drives of the game in the second half that put the game away &045; a 14-play, 61-yard drive that set up a Cody Shipley field goal and a 12-play drive to end the game that made the Yellow Jackets burn all three of their timeouts.

&uot;The first series (of the game) we held them three and out and played great,&uot; OFA head coach Jason Brabham said. &uot;We did that, but my guys played hard. I don’t think they played great, but we did play hard. It takes more than playing hard at this level. I’m proud of our guys. They didn’t give up. We made too many mistakes to win this type of game in November.&uot;

The Tigers had that 7-0 lead going into the second half and struggled a bit moving the ball at the start when they were forced to punt. But the defense answered by holding Oak Forest to an incompletion on fourth and long at the Centreville 26 to give the offense the ball again.

That’s when the Tigers went steady with running back Blake Devall behind that bullish offensive line to take control of the game. And give credit to the Tigers for mixing it up a bit &045; Chase Paulk made a huge grab on a pass from Jennings Field on third down to keep the drive going &045; before the Tigers got to the 5.

Oak Forest’s defense held, and Shipley booted an 18-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead to make it a two-score game.

&uot;That was a big drive,&uot; Centreville head coach Bill Hurst said. &uot;I’ve seen (Paulk) make catches, but that’s probably as good a catch I’ll ever see him make. I thought the ball was going over his head, but before I knew it, he pulled it in. It wasn’t a mistake by the referee &045; it was a heck of a catch.&uot;

That was enough for the Tigers’ defense to work, especially in the second half. The Yellow Jackets got a break in the fourth quarter when they recovered a Centreville punt, but two plays later Shane Holland had a pass picked off by Jeffrey DeLee to give the Tigers the ball with 5:02 left.

The biggest defensive play, however, came in the second quarter when the Yellow Jackets had their biggest drive of the game. They went 17 plays to get down to the Centreville 7, but Holland had a pass picked off by Centreville’s Josh Lanehart in the end zone to kill the drive.

Then in the third quarter the Tigers held on that fourth down to set up the field goal.

&uot;That was Josh Lanehart coming in &045; he was playing for Blake Crawford, and he really stepped it up,&uot; Dooley said. &uot;He really played hard and showed he could play at this level. I think that put a damper on them. We’re playing as a unit, and we started taking pride. I think the interception in the end zone really broke their backs.&uot;

The other big play set up the Tigers’ only touchdown in the first quarter after both teams struggled moving the ball early in the game. The Yellow Jackets were forced to punt at midfield, but the snap sailed over A.J. Pettito’s head.

Pettito tried to run before getting tackled for a 26-yard loss to give Centreville the ball at the OFA 22. Eight plays later Field ran it in from 1 yard out for a 7-0 lead with 34 seconds left in the first quarter.

&uot;That bad punt snap was what really helped us out,&uot; Hurst said. &uot;But we were able to take advantage of it. Sometimes you get breaks like that and don’t take advantage of it, but we were able to take advantage. That was a big, big play.&uot;