By By Austin Bishop/The Meridian Star
November 4, 2001
The Lamar School football coaching staff, players and fans and even the media got a little reminder about what it means to assume on Friday night.
When Lamar head coach Mac Barnes went to bed following his team's 19-10 loss to Manchester he thought his Raiders had missed their chance to make the MPSA 3-AAA playoffs.
When he woke up on Saturday morning he found out differently. Assistant football coach Doyle Bryan informed Barnes that Copiah Academy, a heavy underdog, had upset Central Hinds, 27-9.
That left Lamar and Manchester as the co-champions of the league with identical 2-1 records, while Central Hinds and Copiah were both 1-2. Had Central Hinds won, Lamar would have been left out of the playoff picture due to the tiebreaker format.
Lamar will go as the No. 2 team out of the league and will take on the top-ranked MPSA AAA team in the state when they travel to Clinton, La., on Nov. 16 to take on Silliman Institute.
The MPSA Class A teams and the MHSAA 2A, 3A and 4A teams begin playoff action on Friday night, while the MPSA AAAA, AAA and AA teams and the MHSAA 1A and 5A squads enter playoff action the following week.
In Class 4A action involving local teams on Friday, Quitman entertains McComb, Louisville will host Oxford, and Noxubee County plays host to Lafayette.
In Class 3A Newton County plays host to Morton, while Velma Jackson visits Philadelphia. West Lauderdale travels to Forest.
On the Class 2A side of things, Newton plays host to McLaurin, Kemper County visits Wesson, Bay Springs travels to East Marion and Enterprise visits St. John.
In MPSA Class A playoff action, Heidelberg hosts Mississippi County (Ark.) and Wayne Academy visits Deer Creek Academy.