CENTREVILLE — It was cold, and it was hard, but the Centreville Academy Tigers won the MPSA Class AA South State Championship again, defeating Oak Forest 17-14.

The game was anything but pretty, with two fumbles on each side and a 74-yard interception return for a touchdown by the Tigers.

The Yellow Jackets had 100 more yards of offense than Centreville, but it was the turnovers and key play calls that really mattered.

With no time left on the clock before halftime, kicker Nathaniel Gration kicked a 32-yard field goal to put the Tigers ahead 10-7.

Oak Forest had possession of the ball just 40 seconds before, but after throwing an incomplete pass on third down, the Yellow Jackets punted.

Oak Forest was then flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on an incomplete pass by Centreville quarterback Kyle Brown to Hunter Brabham, giving the Tigers a first down and the opportunity for Gration to kick two plays later.

“I should have let the clock run out right there before halftime,” Oak Forest coach Jason Brabham said. “I didn’t realize how close it was to being over. I could have ran a play and let the clock run out but I didn’t notice until I called the play and they were fixing to snap it. I looked up there and there were 40-something seconds left, and I about had a stroke.”

Brabham also took the blame for the intercepted pass on third-down-and-six, which was picked by Brown for a 74-yard score. He said he should have given the ball to quarterback Jonathan Burrell, who had 19 carries for 143 yards and two touchdowns, because he had not been tackled for less than 6 yards in the game.

He said he blamed the Yellow Jackets’ loss on himself.

“Our guys were physical, they played hard,” he said. “I made some pretty bonehead decisions and play calls that cost us big. The guys couldn’t have done any better. That’s the difference in the ballgame, that touchdown, and that’s one I’m going to have to live with.”

Oak Forest scored first when Burrell ran 14 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, but the Tigers answered six minutes later with a 7-yard run by Brown, followed by the field goal.

Oak Forest threatened again in the fourth with a 1-yard Burrell run, but after Centreville went three-and-out, the Tigers held the Yellow Jackets at midfield to seal the game.

On fourth-down-and-five, Brabham sent Josh Ballard up the middle for no gain instead of sending him to the Tigers’ weak right side as expected.

“We weren’t expecting that formation,” Centreville coach Bill Hurst said. “They’d been powering off the tackle, but … I told them all week just to watch for the counter. We went to a goal-line defense right there, and we just had people all over it. We were just lucky.”

Hurst said other than the big interception and the field goal, the team never could get much going.

Part of that was blamed on the weather, which hovered around 35 degrees during the game.

“Every time we thought we were going to get a play going, we’d come up short,” he said. “It was a really odd game. The cold got us all messed up, and it was just really odd.”

Hurst also partially blamed the weather for all the injuries the Tigers have suffered the past few games.

Centreville’s four starting offensive linemen are all out, and so is key linebacker Brandon Aldridge.

Offensive lineman Justin Henry went out Friday with a possible torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“We’re so beat up right now,” Hurst said. “I’ve got the most injuries I’ve ever had on a football team in 36 years. It’s going to catch up with us. I’ve just never seen so many hit one team, and it just seems like they come a little bit easier now.”

The Tigers will take on Kirk Academy in the Class AA state championship next Saturday at North Rankin Academy in Pelahatchie at 4 p.m. to defend their state title.