This Week's National Matchups #6-10

#10 South Panola (Batesville, Mississippi) - vs. Southhaven. The Tigers are riding an 82 game winning streak including five Mississippi 5A state championships. The string of wins dates back to August 28, 2003 and nearly came to a close last week against Tupelo, where they had to stop a two-point conversion attempt to seal the win. This week could be a tough game, given the Chargers' 6-2 record. Looking deeper into that record, it seems to have been built on a soft schedule, against opponents whose combined records are 20-40. Not real impressive. The bottom line...South Panola wins by 17. #9 Lowndes (Valdosta, Georgia) - Idle. The Vikings have put up gawdy numbers against inferior competition and have won solidly in all games. This will be a nice bye week for Lowndes before rounding out their schedule with three tough games before the playoffs. The bottom line...Regroup after a close win over Valdosta last week. #8 North Shore Galena Park (Houston, Texas) - The Mustangs have had a tough, tough schedule this year and had that little storm known as Hurricane Ike to deal with and still came through it all unscathed. Battling through Katy, Eisenhower, and Lufkin to start out the season, and then rolling over Memorial and Channelview, this team is looking strong. This week is 5-1 Sterling in a District 21-5A showdown. The bad thing for Sterling is that they have garnered this 5-1 record against opponents with a 12-20-1 record. North Shore should roll. The bottom line...'Stangs by four touchdowns. #7 Oscar Smith (Chesapeake, Virginia) - @ Deep Creek. The thing about these Tigers is that they seem to play their best against good competition. They still dominate the lesser teams as well. Deep Creek falls into the latter. Coming in at 2-6, the Hornets have really had a hard time putting points on the board, averaging less than 20 points per game. Defensively, Smith does not allow many points at all. They have only had 13 points scored on them in their last four games. With the combination of a struggling offense against a dominant defense, it doesn't look good for Deep Creek. The bottom line...Tigers by 35. #6 Poly (Long Beach, California) - vs. Wilson. Poly hasn't exactly been amazing in any game until last week. They beat Millikan 50-7, but the other four games were a lot closer than it should be for a top ranked team. The Jackrabbits host Wilson this week, who comes in at 4-3. The Mules have been a roller coaster team, going win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win this season. That pattern shouldn't change this week as Poly, with their depth and experience should roll. Wilson finally put up some offense last week, scoring 41 points, but they are facing a different animal this Friday. The bottom line...Closer than what most think, Poly wins by 10. Read about matchups #21-25 Read about matchups #16-20 Read about matchups #11-15 Read about matchups #1-5