When searching for an opponent for an open date, Porters Chapel coach Randy Wright went through all of the available options and decided to take the best matchup – Jackson Academy.

No, not that one.

This one is in Jackson, Ala., located about 60 miles north of Mobile. PCA will play go on the road to play them on Oct. 10, replacing a previously scheduled game against CM&I.

“I think it’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be interesting to see how we match up with a school from another association,” Wright said.

PCA was supposed to play CM&I, a district opponent from Jackson, Miss., on Oct. 10. Two weeks before the season began, however, CM&I scrapped its football program and will not have a team for the second straight year. In 2007, the Mississippi Private School Association gave CM&I’s athletic program the death penalty for a series of rules infractions.

Most of CM&I’s opponents were able to fill the void in the schedule with another MPSA school. The only other team with an open date on Oct. 17, however, was Prentiss Christian, and Wright said they weren’t interested in filling it. So Wright called MPSA director of activities Les Triplett, who reached out to his counterparts in Tennessee and Alabama. Together, they came up with a list of schools with open dates and settled on Jackson Academy – the one in Alabama, not to be confused with the MPSA Class AAA powerhouse in Mississippi’s capital city.

“I don’t think we’d want to play them,” Wright said with a laugh, referring to Mississippi’s JA.

Jackson Academy in Alabama is a Class AA school in the Alabama Independent School Association. It went 0-10 in 2007, and was outscored 197-6 in its last three games. Included in that run was an 84-0 drubbing at the hands of AISA Class AA champion Southern Academy.

Porters Chapel, on the other hand, advanced to the second round of the MPSA Class A playoffs last year and opened this season with a 42-14 romp over Claiborne last Friday. PCA will play River Oaks in its home opener this Friday night.

Despite the long drive for what, on paper at least, seems to be a decisive mismatch, Wright said he didn’t want to take the night off. Oct. 17 falls in the middle of a tough three-game stretch in which PCA plays Heidelberg, Central Hinds and Benton. PCA played Heidelberg in the playoffs last season, and the contests with Central Hinds and Benton are likely to decide the District 5-A championship. Wright didn’t want his team to get rusty during such a crucial time of the season.

Likewise, playing at home was not an option.

“Their coach said he absolutely did not want to come up here. And that’s fine. Beggars can’t be choosers. I didn’t figure we were going to get them to play here,” Wright said, adding that the drive isn’t that bad compared to some the Eagles have taken recently. Since 2006, PCA has had at least seven road games at schools more than a two-hour drive from Vicksburg.

“It was 165 miles to Claiborne, and it’s 175 to this school. So it won’t be that bad,” Wright said.