By Whitman McGee
When the playoff brackets were released on Sunday morning, a sigh of relief exhaled from the town of Minden as the Crimson Tide had squeezed into the post-season, ranked at #31 in Class 4A.
The Tide (4-6) finished out the 2021 regular-season last week with a playoff-determining battle against the (1-8) Franklin Parish Patriots.
Franklin Parish put up their best effort of the season against Minden, but the Tide fought through adversity and grinded out the tough victory by a final score of 35-34
It’s been a turbulent season for Minden, starting off 2-1 before dropping 4-straight against steep competition.
The last of these losses came at the hands of the (8-1) Neville Tigers, who shut out the banged-up Tide squad, 30-0.
Following their early-season loss to St. Thomas More, the Tigers astonishingly shut out all of their last 4 opponents by a combined score of 171-0.
This playoff matchup will be a sequel of sorts, as last year these two teams duked it out in the quarter-finals, where Neville came out on top 27-0.
It won’t be easy, most don’t even think it’s possible, but don’t count out the Tide just yet, as Coach Heard most definitely still has a trick or two left up his sleeve.
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