Whether they win the rest of their games and secure a wild card berth in the MAIS Class AAA playoffs, or do the same and win the District 3-AAA championship, the St. Aloysius Flashes have backed themselves into a corner as far as their postseason hopes go.

Perhaps that’s why coach BJ Smithhart seemed to channel his inner Bill Belichick when talking about this week’s opponent. It’s on to Greenville (St. Joseph), and nothing else really matters.

“We’re just worried about Greenville,” Smithhart said. “Just thinking about Greenville. That’s enough. They’re pretty good. It’s a big game because it’s Greenville.”

The Flashes and Irish do have a rivalry, even if it’s a bit more subdued than their more celebrated Catholic school clashes with Cathedral and Madison-St. Joseph. The teams first met in 1952, but haven’t played every year. In the 2000s, there was a four-year hiatus in the rivalry from 2005-08. They’ve played each year since 2009, though, with St. Al winning four of the last seven meetings.

The schools are regular opponents in other sports as well, which Smithhart says helps pick up the intensity.

“We play each other every year in pretty much everything. We don’t have to play it up,” he said.
The teams are coming into this meeting from opposite ends of the football spectrum.

Greenville-St. Joe is 4-2, with one of its losses coming to undefeated Indianola Academy. Even if it can’t overtake Indianola for the District 2-AAA title, the Irish are in good position to earn one of the 11 wild card berths that are awarded based on the MAIS power points system.

The Irish is led by junior quarterback Brice Johnson. Already a three-year starter, he’s thrown for 901 yards and nine touchdowns this season, and run for 516 yards and nine TDs.

“They’re big and fast, and can do a lot of different things,” Smithhart said. “They can go Power-I and then empty it out and do both well. The quarterback is a good operator. All the recipes for success, they have them.”

St. Al, meanwhile, is still trying to find is success cookbook.

The Flashes are 0-6 despite having led in the second half of four of those games. The losing streak has put them 23rd out of 25 teams in the Class AAA power point rankings. The 16-team playoff field is comprised of five district champions and the top 11 non-champions based on power points.

St. Al still has three of its four district games remaining, meaning it could reach the playoffs by winning those and potentially claiming the district title. This week’s game is its last outside the district.
Even though they lost 50-32 to Adams Christian last week, the Flashes did seem to take a couple of steps forward. They had more than 400 yards of total offense, and both the yardage and point totals were more than they’d had the last two weeks combined.

Smithhart said he was more encouraged by his team’s attitude, though.

“If we score a lot or we score a little, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if we win 2-0. I just want to see the fight,” he said. “We played three good quarters against a good football team last week. We had some bad things happen early and we kept responding.”

The Flashes are also getting some key players back for the stretch run. Senior wide receiver Brandon Teller, who broke his hand just before the season opener, had his best game of the year against ACCS. So did sophomore quarterback Antonio Thompson, who sat out the previous week against Hartfield Academy because of an injury.

The biggest return was linebacker Landon Middleton. An all-district player last season, Middleton broke his foot during preseason practice and did not play until the ACCS game. Having him back in the lineup gave the Flashes a boost in both talent and depth, which has been part of the reason for their second-half struggles.

“Getting Landon back was huge,” Smithhart said. “He played a lot more, and a lot better, than I expected. He hadn’t been able to run in six weeks. He played every defensive snap.”

GREENVILLE-ST. JOE AT ST. AL

Friday, 7 p.m.

Radio: 101.3 FM

Online: For live scoring updates on Friday, visit twitter.com/vixpostsports and facebook.com/thevicksburgpost