CENTREVILLE — With two games remaining in the regular season, Centreville Academy was sitting at 3-5 overall, 0-1 in MAIS District 4-AA following a one-point loss at Brookhaven Academy on Sept. 28, and in danger of missing out on the Class AA State Playoffs.

But after a 46-19 beatdown at district rival Amite School Center and a convincing 36-16 win over a good Clinton Christian Academy team in the district and regular-season finale, the Tigers finished second in district play and, somewhat surprisingly, earned the No. 7 seed in Class AA.

Three postseason victories later, Centreville Academy is playing for yet another state championship. This Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Jackson Academy, the 8-5 Tigers will take on the No. 1 seed and 11-1 St. Joseph Catholic School Fighting Irish from Greenville for the MAIS Class AA State Championship.

Tiger’s assistant coach Lance Nettles said the players are excited for the opportunity to play for the state championship.

“They’re just thankful to be there. The season they had, they’re grateful just to be there,” Nettles said.

A Centreville Academy win will give both the school and Tigers head coach Bill Hurst an unprecedented 10th football state championship. CA’s last appearance in a state title game came in 2014, when it defeated Adams County Christian School 35-21 for the Class AA state championship.

Nettles said the wet weather on Monday as well as the cold weather on Tuesday and Wednesday would have an impact on practice. So would something else.

“We can’t get in the gym because of basketball,” Nettles said. “We can’t even get outside to practice.” He added that having an extra day of practice would help as far as preparation is concerned.

“We’ll try to keep it as close as possible,” Nettles said.

The Tigers took care of No. 10 seed Carroll Academy 40-14 in the first round. Then they shut out No. 2 seed Winona Christian School in the second half en route to a 38-14 upset win in the second round. Last week in the semifinals, what was a low-scoring defensive battle ended up being a shootout as the Tigers held on to pull off another road upset, this time defeating No. 3 seed Sylva-Bay Academy 40-38 in triple overtime.

“It took a lot out of us. I don’t know if we’ll be able to recover from it,” Nettles said about how much the win over Sylva-Bay took out of the players.

Now Centreville Academy faces off with a St. Joseph team that is on a 10-game winning streak. The Fighting Irish’s last loss came on Aug. 24 – a 42-14 blowout at the hands of Class AAA No. 1 seed Indianola Academy.

St. Joseph routed No. 16 seed Glenbrook School 52-7 in the first round, held on for a 26-20 win over No. 9 seed Clinton Christian in the second round, and shut out No. 4 seed Brookhaven Academy 40-0 last Friday night in the semifinals.

“They’ve got so much speed and size. They’ve got speed across the line,” Nettles said. “Their quarterback and running back are so talented. We’re going to try to keep them under 50 (points).”

Centreville will also be seeking a measure of payback for St. Joseph eliminating the Tigers from each of the last two postseasons.

“They beat us in the semis last year and the quarters (second round) the year before,” said Nettles, who added, “So they’ll beat us in the state championship game.”

When asked what it will take for the Tigers to finally get over the hump and defeat St. Joseph, Nettles said, “It’s going to take a miracle for us to win the game.”