Weekend of huge battles
Published 11:27 pm Wednesday, November 19, 2008
This weekend will be an eventful one for Troy University’s Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium. And I am sure by the end of the weekend the Troy ground’s crew will be glad Troy has a turf field instead of grass.
There will be four games played on the field in two days this weekend with the biggest one being the final one. Troy University hosts the fellow Sun Belt No. 1 seed University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns Saturday at 6 p.m.
This game will be the defining factor in which of the two teams represents the Sun Belt in the New Orleans Bowl and could determine the outright championship. If Troy wins the game and takes out Arkansas State at Movie Gallery Dec. 6 the Trojans will own their first ever outright Sun Belt title since joining the conference in 2004.
This is a huge day for the Trojans and it should be a great game to watch and cover. Troy nearly had the upset last week and I know they will put everything they have into this game.
Last week Nascone’s Predictions was unfortunately 2-0 with the LSU loss and the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots semifinal win. The season record stands at 33-12 with only one more high school game and possibly three college games remaining in the season.
I think Troy will pull out the victory 35-30 in a hard-fought battle on the gridiron Saturday.
But before all that action kicks off the state championships in all three classifications of the AISA will be decided. The hometown Pike Liberal Arts School Patriots face the Fort Dale Eagles in the Class AAA championship at 4 p.m.
This game is a rematch of an earlier game this year. Pike Liberal traveled to Greenville and took out the Eagles 22-16 in a grueling game that went down to the last minute.
The Patriots will have their work cut out for them, as it is always hard to play a team twice in a single year. But on the flip side Fort Dale will have the same fate.
This should also be a very interesting game and will go down to the wire. The Patriots will pull it out 21-14 to end the historic season on a winning note.
The Class AA and Class A championships will also be played Friday. Edgewood faces Lowndes at 1 p.m. in the AA title game and South Choctaw plays Patrician in the A at 7 p.m.
Matt Nascone is the sports editor of The Messenger. He can be reached at 670-6315 or online at matt.nascone@troymessenger.com.