Marbury’s 18-17 win over Montevallo on Friday night was crucial to the Bulldogs’ (the local ones) playoff aspirations, but it was a significant game for another reason: The outcome broke, for at least one week, The Clanton Advertiser jinx.

There has been discussion around the office about the curious fates of many of the new starting quarterbacks featured on the cover of the 2007 high school football preview (five of the seven suffered injuries serious enough to knock them out of games). It was brought to my attention last week, though, that the jinx might live beyond the annual football section.

The Advertiser each week includes an in-depth preview of a significant game that a local team will host – a sort of game of the week. Well, our teams had gone 1-4 in games we featured before Marbury stood up to the jinx, the only other win being Isabella over Fultondale.

Maybe the result from Marbury on Friday night will end the jinx. I wouldn’t want players and coaches start dreading the sight of me. Don’t look now, but we’ll probably highlight several local teams this Friday.

Marbury’s win was part of a night that saw local teams go 6-2. Not too bad. Isabella bounced back from a lopsided loss to Pickens County High in Week 6, while the other five teams picked up wins that will be crucial for their playoff hopes.

One week after the offense finally got in gear to produce its first win of the year, the Chilton County High defense carried the team this time. The Tigers returned two interceptions for touchdowns, which were their only two six-pointers of the game. If CCHS can put the offense and the defense together against Wilcox Central this week, the Tigers will be a difficult team to beat the rest of the year.

Maplesville also had a breakout game of sorts. The offense struggled in a loss to Linden last week and in the first half Friday against Akron as the Red Devils led only 21-6 at the intermission. But Maplesville found its groove and routed the Rams. The Devils now have only 24 regular season wins in a row to go to tie the streak that was broken in the loss to Linden.

Greensboro seemed a trap game for Jemison with a visit from Bibb County High coming up, but the Panthers took care of business. Now, a win over the Choctaws would give Jemison the Class 4A, Region 3 title and home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

If we don’t jinx them, that is.