An Ethel victory is assured when the Tigers close out the regular season Thursday with a home game against Noxapater.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association has declared that Noxapater must forfeit the game due to beginning practice before the authorized date. Noxapater will be allowed to play, but the result will be a forfeit no matter the result.
The result will leave Ethel with a 6-2 overall record and 5-2 in Region 3-1A following last week's 28-14 victory over Vardaman. The Tigers could finish second, third or fourth in the region depending on the outcome of Sebastopol-Hamilton and French Camp-Leake County games.
Sebastopol and French Camp are both 4-2 in region play. If both win (they are favored), resulting in a three-way tie for second behind region champion West Lowndes, Sebastopol would be seeded second, French Camp third and Ethel fourth for the 1A playoffs based upon points in games between the three teams. Ethel defeated Sebastopol 36-30, but lost to French Camp 36-6 and Sebastopol beat French Camp 28-13.
A French Camp loss would move Ethel up to second regardless of the outcome in Sebastopol's game. A French Camp win and a Sebastopol loss would mean a third seed for the Tigers.
3-1A will be matched up with teams from 4-1A when the playoffs begin November 12. Bay Springs is going to finish first in 4-1A, defending 2A champion Taylorsville second and defending 1A champion Lumberton third so Ethel could face any of those three. Lumberton, if Ethel is a two seed, would b a home game for the Tigers, the other two road games.
Cyrus Rone, Marcus Jones and Anton Clark led Ethel to the victory over Vardaman. Rone carried nine times for had 120 yards, with a 44-yard touchdown run, a 19-yard scoring pass from Jones and six tackles. Jones had 24 carries for 145 yards, competed three of five passes for 46 yards and on defense had four tackles and an interception. Clark led the defense with seven tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery.
The Tigers' other TDs were an 18-yard run by Hunter Quick and a one-yard run by Davion Hunt that capped a 10-minute, 85-yard drive in the third quarter to give Ethel a 28-7-lead.
Ethel finished with 398 yards of offense, 352 on the ground.
Smith said the Tigers have been playing well, except for some inconsistency in the red zone. “The past couple of weeks, we would get down there and have a penalty or something that would throw us off.”
Against Vardaman, a face mask penalty nullified a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Even though the Noxapater game won't count in the standings, Smith said the team will not approach it any differently.
“We're going into it with the same mindset. We will have to modify our schedule a little bit with it being a Thursday. We only have three days to prepare,” said Smith.
He expects to play some of the younger players more “to see where they fit into our grand scheme” for the future.
