Blytheville usually plays Batesville close at Haley Field, but struggles, like most of the Pioneers' opponents, at Pioneer Stadium.
Fortunately for the Chicks, tonight's game is on the friendly grass of Haley, not the Pioneers' artificial turf.
Blytheville (4-3, 2-2 5A-East) hasn't beaten the Pioneers since 2007, when the Chicks won a thriller, 22-21, at home on their way to a perfect 10-0 regular season.
Batesville has won 6 of the last 7 in the series, but the two Chickasaw home losses to the Pioneers were one-possession games -- 21-13 in 2009 and 12-7 in 2005.
A win tonight would ease Blytheville's pain from last Friday night's heartbreaking loss at Beebe.
Maybe not mathematically, but a victory would pretty well assure the Chicks of a playoff berth, considering their last two opponents are a combined 1-12-1.
Most years, four conference wins gets a team into the playoffs, so there is a good chance Blytheville would make it by winning two of its final three games.
Meanwhile, Batesville (5-2, 4-0) controls its own fate, perched solo atop the 5A-East standings. If the Pioneers win out, they are the outright 5A-East champs.
With Blytheville still nicked up, the difference tonight could be depth. Batesville has it; Blytheville doesn't right now.
Batesville 28, Blytheville 16
Pocahontas
at Gosnell
Gosnell (5-2, 2-1 3-4A) and Pocahontas (5-1, 2-1 3-4A) are part of a three-way logjam for second in the conference. Along with Highland (5-1, 2-1 3-4A), the Pirates and Redskins are a 1/2 game back of Osceola (3-4, 3-1 3-4A).
All four teams have a shot at winning outright or sharing the league title if they win out.
Obviously, all of them can't win out because two of the four will have two conferences losses when they wake up Saturday morning. Osceola travels to Highland for the other big 3-4A game tonight.
The Pirates could take a big leap towards back-to-back conference championships by beating Pocahontas tonight.
Gosnell travels to 1-6 Westside next Friday night and hosts fifth-place Valley View (4-2-1, 2-2) in the season finale. The Pirates should be favored in both of those games.
Look for Gosnell to claim its third straight win.
Gosnell 21, Pocahontas 17
Osceola at Highland
The league-leading Seminoles will try to bounce back from a 33-30 loss to Pocahontas last week and stay on top of the standings.
Turnovers and penalties plagued Osceola last week. The Seminoles will try to correct those mistkes at Highland, which is coming off a 42-20 loss to Gosnell. Both teams have shown they can give up points this year so this could be a shootout.
Look for the Seminoles to break two or three big plays and star running back Korliss Marshall to top the 100-yard rushing mark for a sixth straight week.
Osceola 35, Highland 28
Rivercrest
at Bald Knob
The stingy Rivercrest defense will try to slow down the explosive Bulldog offense tonight.
Bald Knob (3-4, 3-1 3-3A) averages better than 40 points a game, while Rivercrest (5-2, 3-1 3-3A) is yielding just 11 points per game with three shutouts on the season.
The Colts ended a 13-game conference winning streak last week with a 32-12 loss to conference leader Earle, the class of the league this year.
Rivercrest rarely loses back-to-back games.
In fact the last time was 2008.
Rivercrest and Bald Knob are in a four-way tie for second in the conference.
Rivercrest 27, Bald Knob 21
Manila at Piggott
One team will get its first conference win of the season tonight, when Manila (1-5, 0-4 3-3A) travels to Piggott (0-7, 0-4).
The other team will be officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Manila 13, Piggott 10
Last week: 3-2, 3-2 points
Season: 23-5, 21-7 points
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com