Hillcrest, Sparta have chance to redeem themselves tomorrow night

Hillcrest High School and Sparta Academy both had rough times on the football field last Friday night.

Hillcrest suffered a 42-0 loss to Saint James in Montgomery, and Sparta suffered a 41-21 loss to Cornerstone Christian in Evergreen.

Both of our hometown teams will get the chance to redeem themselves tomorrow (Friday) night when they take on a pair of region rivals.

Hillcrest will close out its region schedule against 4A Region 2 opponent, Alabama Christian, at Brooks Memorial Stadium in Evergreen. Sparta will play 1A Region 2 opponent, Jackson Academy, at McCorquodale Stadium in Jackson.

Tomorrow night’s game will be the 16th all-time meeting between Sparta and Jackson in football, and Sparta holds an 8-7 lead in the series. Sparta, which first played Jackson in 1972, hasn’t lost to Jackson since 2009. Last season, the Warriors beat Jackson, 29-28, in Evergreen.

Hillcrest’s game against Alabama Christian is arguably Hillcrest’s biggest game of the year due to the playoff implications for the Jaguars.

Hillcrest and Alabama Christian are relatively new foes on the football field. The first ever meeting between the two schools in football was last year when the Jags whipped ACA, 44-27, in Montgomery. Of course, that means that Hillcrest has never lost to ACA in football.

Good luck to both teams as they look for a pair of wins tomorrow night.

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It’s the best time of year for pro baseball fans in the audience thanks to the ongoing World Series. This year’s World Series, which started with Game One yesterday (Wednesday), features the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Personally, I think that Texas is going to win it all. Let’s face it, St. Louis has a good team, but they didn’t even win their division this year. To their credit, though, St. Louis made the playoffs as a wild card team and went on to beat the Brewers in the National League Championship Series.

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The good folks at the state tourism department released this week their monthly list of Top 10 events statewide, and several sports-related events in November made the cut.

This year’s Turkey Day Classic will be held on Nov. 24 in Montgomery and will feature the Alabama State University Hornets and the Tuskegee University Golden Tigers. Evergreen football fans will have an extra reason to watch this annual showdown between football rivals because former Hillcrest High School standout, Justin Nared, is the starting quarterback this season at Tuskegee.

This year’s Iron Bowl will be played on Nov. 26 in Auburn. This game is without a doubt the nation’s biggest college football rivalry game, and this year’s contest will feature the latest two BCS National Championship winners.

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Here are my picks for this week’s slate of SEC football games.

I like Alabama over Tennessee, Arkansas over Ole Miss, LSU over Auburn, Jacksonville State over Kentucky and Vanderbilt over Army. South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State do not play this week.

Last week: 5-0 (.100), Overall: 47-9 (.839).