As 3A-1 teams go into the halfway mark of the regular season, it’s hard not to look at how things might pan out in the end. While other conferences seem to pretty much have their tiers intact, the 3A-1 is still sorting things out in what could be a wild finish to the 2023 regular season. The overall goal for every program is to be conference champions, but after last week’s final scores rolled in, there are quite a few looking at where they could land as one of the top five teams representing the 3A-1 in the State Playoffs. The scary part is many of those teams still have yet to play each other.
Photo courtesy of Malinda Mizell
Booneville is still pegged as the favorite to win the 3A-1 conference title. The Bearcats have mowed their way through competition up to this point, but they are just now getting to the beef of their schedule. Booneville will travel to Mansfield on Friday, October 13th to face off against one of their former coaches, Whit Overton, and his up-and-coming Tigers. If they can survive that Tigers team, they’ll travel to another jungle the following week to take on the Charleston Tigers in what could be a battle for the 3A-1 crown. Charleston upended Booneville for the Conference Championship and the State Championship last year and will aim to do the same again in 2023. After facing a back-to-back tussle with a pair of Tigers, the next threat comes from the Lavaca Golden Arrows. If the Bearcats can survive a strong Mansfield defense and shut down Charleston and Lavaca’s prolific offenses, then Booneville should breeze past Cedarville in their final game to win the 3A-1 Championship.
Photo courtesy of Joey Bolin
Charleston may seem down, but after pulling off a rough and tumble 14-7 victory over a much improved Mansfield team last week, the Tigers proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with. Just like Booneville, Charleston is currently undefeated but will face a one-loss program with a new coach and new energy this week as the defending champion Tigers will head to Hackett on Friday, October 13th. This game will be a polar opposite of the Charleston versus Mansfield game where the defenses ruled the field. Hackett was throttled by Booneville in their first conference game, but their offense has stepped up since then to come back strong by outscoring their past two opponents 83-42. If Charleston can get out of The Hive alive, they’ll go right into a battle for the head of the 3A-1 table against Booneville. Again, that game could wind up being for all the marbles in the 3A-1. Charleston’s final test of the season will be against Lavaca and with that being a rivalry game, anything is possible.
The two games of Booneville at Mansfield and Charleston at Hackett this Friday will be huge for all four teams in the battle for 3A-1 supremacy. With Booneville and Charleston sitting pretty with undefeated records, all of the one-loss teams’ resumes cannot be overlooked. Mansfield’s loss was a narrow 14-7 fall at Charleston last week and Hackett’s was a 46-14 loss to Booneville in the first conference game of the season. Coincidentally, Mansfield and Hackett will swap the opponents they lost to this week which should give a small indication as to where they stand with each other. Hackett has already played two of the top four teams on their schedule and gone 1-1 against them in the process. With two of the top four already played, the Hornets have the simplest route to success left as they will have home-field advantage in their big games against Charleston and Mansfield. Mansfield on the other hand still has a daunting task ahead of them. The Tigers have yet to face three of the top four teams in the 3A-1 left on their schedule. Although the Tigers will host Booneville this week, they will still have to travel to Hackett and Lavaca as the season winds down. If Mansfield and Hackett both win out or just lose one game between now and their season finale, then their annual rivalry game against each other on November 3rd will most definitely be ESPN worthy.
Photo courtesy of Malinda Mizell
The other one-loss team is the Lavaca Golden Arrows. Lavaca started out as one of the hottest offenses in the conference this season, but a massive comeback by the Hackett Hornets derailed their streak. That doesn’t leave the Golden Arrows out though as they still have the capability to upset some teams and climb the 3A-1 ladder to close out the season. Lavaca will play Greenland this week before going headfirst into a monstrous final three games against Mansfield, Booneville, and their archrivals, Charleston. The Golden Arrows dropped their last four games in a row last season but seem to be more on top of their game this year. Although it’s definitely the toughest final three-game stretch in the conference, maybe even the state, Lavaca has a solid shot of winning each game.
The bottom line is, there is a scenario where there could be five teams with a 4-1 conference record come next week. If that happens, every single program in the state will have no choice but to look at the 3A-1 conference with absolute awe. Friday, October 13th may be scarier than some expect if those big upsets happen. It may sound crazy to think that Mansfield could beat Booneville with the Bearcats owning a 43-year winning streak over the Tigers, but it’s definitely possible. Could Hackett go from a 0-7 winless 2022 season to defeating the defending State Champion Charleston Tigers this year? Who knows, but the one thing without question is that the 3A-1 could have some nightmarish scenarios for all teams involved after this Friday…..Friday the 13th that is (ch ch ch, ah ah ah).
