[8/20/04]TALLULAH For two schools located on opposite ends of Louisiana, and nearly three hours apart, Tallulah Academy and Claiborne Christian have been seeing a lot of each other lately.

They met last October in the regular season, then again in the second round of the MPSA Class A playoffs. Tallulah won that game in a rout, 38-7, but Claiborne repaid the favor with a rout of its own during a spring scrimmage.

The teams will meet for a fourth time tonight at Farmers Field in Tallulah for the season-opener. Both schools have playoff aspirations again, and few secrets between each other.

“We’ve played each other twice, and it’s basically the same thing,” Tallulah linebacker William King said. “They’ve got basically the same group of kids and we know they’ve got some athletes out there, some fast people.”

The spring scrimmage marked a low point for Tallulah. The Trojans had several players ineligible because of low grades, several others injured, and a few more playing out of position. Players and coaches don’t mince any words when talking about spring practice. They simply lower their head and voice, and refer to it as if it were a shameful episode from long ago.

“They destroyed us in the spring. They literally picked us apart. So we know what we’ve got coming over here,” Tallulah coach Jacky Thames said. “They love to power, but they will definitely show run and throw. So they’re real deceiving.”

The Trojans seem to be running a con game of their own this summer, though.

All of the ineligible players are back in good standing, and the injuries have healed. Tallulah has 10 seniors on its 18-man roster, plenty of bulk up front, and the desire to run it down opponents’ throats.

The experience has helped the Trojans show a lot of improvement over the summer, and a win over Claiborne would certainly start the season on the right foot.

“We’ve got two games under our belt, and we’ll be in a lot better shape than we were in the spring,” King said.

“They definitely want revenge after we killed them in the second round of the playoffs. It’s going to be tough. It’s definitely going to be a test.”