Prep & MRA face off in rematch for MAIS 6A State Championship

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The MAIS football championships kick off this week, with the first game starting Thursday.

A rivalry between two schools at the top will be hyped up leading up to their battle for the trophy.

The biggest game on the schedule this year is, once again, Jackson Prep versus Madison Ridgeland Academy. The Patriots battle it out again in the championship.

This rivalry has gone back and forth.

Last season MRA took down Jerrion Ealy and the Patriots during the regular season but ended up losing to that same team in the championship.

This season Madison Ridgeland Academy beat Jackson Prep 34-22, and again meet in the final.

MRA head coach Hebert Davis says his program has the caliber of a championship squad, now they need to win it.

“I don’t care who we have to break right now as long as we win it. You know that’s the bottom line. You know because we worked hard to build our program in six years. We’ve had a lot of opportunities. But honestly you know our program, we’ve set the bar that we want to be state champions. We feel like our program, we can be at a championship caliber level. We got to go win it," said Davis.

Jackson Prep has won seven straight state championships. This rivalry game can extent or break that streak.

Jackson Prep head coach Ricky Black knows MRA well and what they’re goals in the past were and what kind of team he’ll meet on the field this Saturday.

“Last year the mission was kind of just beat Jackson Prep. Looks like this mission this year is to win the state championship. So this is a good football team. Very well coached football team and a team who doesn’t make very many mistakes. So I just hope they’re time’s up they need to make a lot of mistakes Saturday,” said Black.

Jackson Prep plays MRA at Mississippi College on Saturday.