Porters Chapel Academy was among the schools to feel the ripple effects Wednesday of St. Aloysius, Cathedral and Greenville-St. Joseph jumping into the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools pool.

PCA had the dates of six games switched and swapped out one opponent in the MAIS’ revised football schedule released Wednesday. Although it ruffled some travel plans, PCA coach Wayne Lynch said he was pleased with the changes.

PCA dropped Hartfield Academy, a Class AAA school, and replaced it with Class AA Prentiss Christian. PCA is also a Class AA school.

“It puts us on a level playing field with the age and experience of the team we have,” Lynch said. “It can’t hurt us. We lost Hartfield, which is a AAA, and got Prentiss, which is the same class as us. It’s one game different than what we had.”

The schedule adjustment became necessary when the three Catholic schools moved from the Mississippi High School Activities Association to the MAIS last week. To fit them into the football schedule, a number of games in all classes had to be moved around.

Lynch said he expected some changes to his team’s schedule when St. Al was put into the same district as PCA opponents Central Hinds and Hartfield.

“I expected if anything was to change, we would lose one or both of Central Hinds or Hartfield. I thought we’d lose both, to be honest,” Lynch said. “It’s not a real big shock. I’m just glad they worked it out.”

Like Lynch, Central Hinds coach Lance Teasley said he felt his team fared well with the revised schedule. A few dates were changed, but the overall upheaval was minimal.

“We had a homecoming game scheduled and that game got moved. The Riverfield game got moved to Week 7. We didn’t lose any opponents, we just moved around a bit,” Teasley said. “I haven’t seen much of anything that changed. I think they did a pretty good job. I wouldn’t have wanted that job.”

While Hartfield was dropped entirely from PCA’s schedule, the Central Hinds game was moved up a week to Sept. 4 and begins a six-week run of reshuffled opponents.

The Eagles will play at Hillcrest Christian on Sept. 11; the District 5-AA opener at Trinity on Sept. 18; the homecoming game against Clinton Christian on Sept. 25; at home against Prentiss Christian Oct. 2; and another district game at Wilkinson County Christian on Oct. 9.

PCA’s first two games — at St. Andrew’s on Aug. 21 and home against Riverdale on Aug. 28 — remained unchanged. The late-season contests at Benton Academy on Oct. 16 and home against Amite School Center on Oct. 23 also remained the same.

“We expected there to be changes, and it worked out for us,” Lynch said.

Porters Chapel Academy schedule

All games start at 7 p.m.

Aug. 21 – at St. Andrew’s

Aug. 28 – Riverdale

Sept. 4 – Central Hinds

Sept. 11 – at Hillcrest

Sept. 18 – *at Trinity

Sept. 25 – Clinton Christian

Oct. 2 – Prentiss Christian

Oct. 9 – *at Wilkinson County Christian

Oct. 16 – at Benton Academy

Oct. 23 – *Amite

*District 5-AA games