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Porter's Chapel Academy football players, from left, Hunter Simms, Cody Pagan, John Wyatt Massey and Conley Johnston run up the field on a quarterback sneak during a summer workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy football head coach Blake Purvis watches his players during a summer workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy center Hunter Simms prepares to snap the football during a summer workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy running back Jase Jung takes a handoff from quarterback John Wyatt Massey during a summer workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy quarterback John Wyatt Massey runs with the football during a summer workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Miles Randle runs with the football during a drill at a practice in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Ty Mack runs with the football during a drill at a practice in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter’s Chapel Academy will have plenty of homework to do in studying its 2023 opponents.

Only three of the Eagles’ 11 games are against teams that were on their schedule in 2022. They have not faced any of the other eight since joining the MAIS’ eight-man division in 2021.

The season opener is also early — Aug. 11, a week before most other teams begin — and on the road at River Oaks. The Week Zero game means PCA will play 11 games rather than the 10 that most MAIS teams have, and it will not have an open date.

Week 2 brings the home opener and the Eagles’ first game vs. Delta Academy since 1980.

Other new opponents are road trips Humphreys Academy and Hillcrest Christian; and home dates vs. Tensas Academy, Riverdale and Sharkey-Issaquena. PCA last played Tensas and SIA in 2005. It has never faced Riverdale.

PCA has three district games as it tries to reach the MAIS Class 2A playoffs for the third year in a row — a home game vs. Park Place on Sept. 15, and road games vs. Hillcrest on Sept. 29 and Prairie View on Oct. 20.

For more coverage of Porter’s Chapel Academy heading into the 2023 season, follow us at vicksburgpost.com, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. Then pick up a copy of our annual football preview magazine, “Playmakers,” which will be available Aug. 19.

2023 PORTER’S CHAPEL ACADEMY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
All games start at 7 p.m.
Aug. 11 — at River Oaks
Aug. 18 — Delta Academy
Aug. 25 — at Prentiss Christian
Sept. 1 — Riverdale
Sept. 8 — at Humphreys Academy
Sept. 15 — *Park Place
Sept. 22 — Tensas Academy
Sept. 29 — *at Hillcrest Christian
Oct. 6 — Sharkey-Issaquena
Oct. 13 — Wilkinson Christian
Oct. 20 — *at Prairie View
*MAIS District 3-2A games

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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