MAIS previews: Centreville eyeing district title

Published 12:01 am Thursday, October 20, 2011

CENTREVILLE — The Centreville Academy football team has its eyes on a MAIS District 6-AA title this season, and to accomplish that goal the next two games for the Tigers are critical.

Centreville will host a struggling Central Private team Friday before facing Silliman Academy to end its regular season. Both teams are in District 6-AA, and Tigers’ assistant coach Brian Stutzman said the team wants to leave no doubts about the best team in the district.

“This is a (district) game for us,” Stutzman said. “We have two (district) games left with Central Private and Silliman, and we put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the next two games to be able to win the (district).

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“Hopefully we can go undefeated in the district and won’t have to worry about the points (tiebreaker). We just want to win the district outright and the only way to do that is to win them all.”

Central Private will come into Friday’s game having its worst season since 2005.

“They are in a rebuilding phase,” Stutzman said. “Their coach, Coach (Mike) Longmire is a great coach and a good friend of ours.”

Stutzman said Central Private would run its offense out of spread formations. He said the Rebels like to run but have the ability to throw when they need to.

Stutzman said the Tigers are working to prepare themselves for the season’s final stretch.

“We are just working on fundamental stuff this week to get ready for everything before the playoffs,” he said. “We are working on cutting turnovers and penalties. We’ve had way too many penalties in the past few games.”

Centreville has not had any trouble winning those games, despite their turnover issues.

The Tigers have won their last six contests by an average of 30.3 points.

“(Winning those games) has helped the team tremendously to build confidence,” Stutzman said. “But on the other hand they have to know that it’s fixing to get tough starting this Friday and next Friday. These games are all like playoff games for us, and we have to stay focused.”

Central Private (1-8, 0-3) and Centreville (7-2, 2-0) will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in Centreville.

Amite School Center at WCCA

woodville — Wilkinson County Christian Academy has put together a season that has even surprised head coach Ray McDaniel this year.

The Rams are 8-1 going into their final two contests of the season, and they are tied for first in MAIS South Central-A.

“It’s probably exceeded (expectations) a little bit,” McDaniel said. “I thought we’d be good, but I didn’t know going into the 10th week of the season we’d be 8-1. I never thought we’d be that good. I just have to give all the credit to the kids, they worked hard throughout the summer, and my coaching staff has worked hard, too.”

McDaniel said the players’ hard work is the thing that has gotten them to this point.

“It’s just work,” he said. “We just made them work to show that, if you work, the hard work will pay off for you. It has, and that will help them in life, too. The harder you they work, the more they’re going to get in life.”

WCCA will have to continue that hard work to finish out the season as well as it started, because the Rams will face two of the toughest opponents on the schedule to end the season.

“We have Amite School Center Friday night, and that’s going to be tough. They’re always a big rival for us,” McDaniel said. “After that, we have CENLA (Christian Academy), and they’re undefeated in district, too. They’re 8-1 just like we are, and they have a really good football team.”

McDaniel said Amite School Center would provide a stiff challenge for the Rams this week.

“They like to run the football. They’re a hard-nosed team, and coach (Ray) Olive and coach (Paul) Hayles are doing a good job over there with them,” McDaniel said. “They’re a whole lot more improved than they were from last year. They’re doing a good job.”

The game between WCCA and Amite School Center will go a long way to determining the winner of the district this season. Amite School Center is just one game behind WCCA and CENLA for first place in the district.

Amite School Center (5-4, 4-1) will travel to WCCA (8-1, 5-0). Kickoff is schedule for 7 p.m. Friday.