NATCHEZ &8212; With three emotional wins in as many weeks under his team&8217;s belt, Trinity head coach David King broke eight years of coaching tradition Monday.

He gave his club an off day.

Depending on your school of thought, the decision could have resulted in either of two extremes &8212; why take a break now when the season is going so well, or everyone finally had a chance to relax and catch their breath.

Even this week&8217;s opponent will have absolutely no playoff implications when the Saints host Central Hinds. They&8217;re already in the playoffs and will go for the District 4-AA championship a week from Friday at Oak Forest.

This week, though, is the awkward non-district game before the big one as MPSA schools in the Miss-Lou enter Week 11.

&8220;This is the final game for our seniors in our beautiful stadium,&8221; King said. &8220;I know it&8217;ll be emotional for those guys. I&8217;m excited about playing another game with this group. They&8217;ve been so focused these last three weeks. We can still win a district championship, and our kids are so excited about winning seven games and going to the playoffs it doesn&8217;t matter who you throw at us.&8221;

The contest will be the last regular season game for the Saints this season and maybe for the entire season depending on the outcome of next week&8217;s game. And it presents the peculiar situation for both Trinity and Central Hinds &8212; nearly everyone else in the MPSA, for that matter &8212; by playing a non-district opponent this late in the season.

Yet that was the case last season when the Saints went to Raymond and pulled an upset of the Cougars, who had won the 3-AA championship, in the final game of the regular season.

Central Hinds lost in the playoffs the next week to Oak Forest while the Saints used the win to clinch a winning season in their first go through Class AA.

&8220;It&8217;s a weird deal &8212; last year I think that&8217;s what helped us beat them,&8221; King said. &8220;They were in the playoffs next week. They probably overlooked us. It can have its drawbacks being a non-conference game.

&8220;I learned a long time ago you can&8217;t get 17-year-old kids up 10 weeks in a row. You just can&8217;t do it. You&8217;ve got to pick those games, and the rest you&8217;ve got to be fundamentally sound. I think our kids mentally need to have a good solid week of reps and don&8217;t listen to a bunch of motivational mumbo-jumbo we&8217;ll need the next two weeks.&8221;

Not only do the Saints have their own obstacles to deal with, Central Hinds will bring

two more of its own. The playoff-bound Cougars have relied on defensive tackles Robert Ferguson (6-1, 250) and Tim May (6-2, 265) to plug up the middle against anyone who entertains the thought of pounding it up the middle.

The Saints do a lot of that with Stevan Ridley and some with fullback Matthew Freeman. They may have to mix it up offensively as they did last week in the 40-21 win over Brookhaven.

Now the Saints may have to go into the contest with a little less firepower after Taylor Fleming may have to sit with a strained MCL. The junior lineman came off the field Friday at one point but finished out the game, but he may be done for the season.

Brookhaven Academy at ACCS

NATCHEZ &8212; You may be hard-pressed to find a better team in Class AA not in the playoffs this fall, yet the Rebels still have plenty to play for.

They have a chance to finish the season 8-2, which would be tied for second-best in school history behind the 12-0 state championship team of 1982. And going out with a win over a good Brookhaven Academy squad would put a sweet ending to a season that featured its fair share of bad breaks.

The Parklane game initially scheduled for next week won&8217;t be played.

&8220;We&8217;ll play as hard as we can and try to come up with the second-best record this school has ever had in its history,&8221; Adams head coach Bobby Marks said. &8220;I look for Brookhaven to come back, play hard and try to salvage a season this week. And I look for us to play hard. Maybe we&8217;ll have a good game over here.&8221;

While injuries have dogged the Rebels for most of the season, they may have found a gem in running back Matthew Guedon. The Rebels inserted Guedon in the second quarter last week in the 41-21 win over Riverdale, and he accumulated 121 yards on just 12 carries to light a fire in the offense.

WCCA at Tallulah Academy

WOODVILLE &8212; Just like last week when the Rams were in a game that meant absolutely nothing to their playoff seeding, they didn&8217;t head into it that way.

Friday&8217;s game at Tallulah also means absolutely zilch as far as the playoffs. But if the Rams can do anything with this last game, it&8217;s an opportunity to correct mistakes and get the timing all back together by the time they host Glenbrook next week in the opening round of the playoffs.

&8220;We&8217;re going to take it as a must-win,&8221; WCCA head coach Paul Hayles said. &8220;After the AC game, every game is a must-win. We&8217;ve beaten Amite and Huntington, and Tallulah is our next step. Each team presents their own challenges. We&8217;ll do hopefully what we&8217;re capable of doing, and hopefully in the playoffs things will go our way.&8221;

Things definitely went the Rams&8217; way last week in a 27-20 win over a good Huntington squad. Now that the Rams have some players back healthy and an offense starting to jell around sophomore quarterback Cody Cullen, the results are improving.

Fullback Chris Gann had 177 yards on 24 carries, while the offense piled up 432 yards total offense despite some nagging mistakes.

&8220;We knew he was capable of running, but we just didn&8217;t know how much we were going nto be able to use him,&8221; Hayles said. &8220;Especially with the (dehydration) problems he had at the beginning of the year. We&8217;re just now healthy. It&8217;s kind of a good thing, but it can throw a little of your timing off. We were able to do a couple of things against Huntington that we haven&8217;t been able to do offensively.&8221;

Hayles, however, lamented critical mistakes that could have backfired Friday night and allowed the Hounds to claim the win. Gann&8217;s impressive numbers were marred by a fumble he had just outside the goal line that rolled out of the end zone.

&8220;We had a lot of mistakes,&8221; Hayles said. &8220;The two turnovers at the goal line, the penalties that we had on two different drives in the third and fourth quarters &8212; that&8217;s a big mountain for us to climb with our style of play. We&8217;re kind of a grind-it-out kind of group, and fortunately the defense played well the second half.&8221;

Huntington at River Oaks

FERRIDAY, La. &8212; The Hounds suffered a disappointing loss last week that ended their plans of posting a winning record in head coach Chad Harkins&8217; first season at the helm, but there&8217;s still plenty to play for.

A win Friday night at River Oaks could be the best possible way to end a season and go into 2006 on a high note. The Mustangs are the District 7-A champs and have pounded nearly every opponent they&8217;ve lined up against this season.

Amite at Tensas Academy

ST. JOSEPH, La. &8212; The Chiefs put up a fight last week against a solid Claiborne squad before coming up short, and it ruined their chances for a winning season.

Now they&8217;ll round out the season with the Rebels at home with a chance to finish at .500 for the season. The Chiefs had a 9-0 lead at halftime and were in control of the game before two big plays did them in during the second half.

Central Private at Centreville

CENTREVILLE &8212; The Tigers will host Central Private in a Thursday showdown that would have ended the regular season had it not been for Hurricane Katrina.

While their hopes of a .500 season are no longer after last week&8217;s loss to Oak Forest, the Tigers can finish District 4-AA action with a .500 mark with a win next week on the road against Columbia.