JACKSON — South Panola and Olive Branch bring identical 4-1 records into Friday night's matchup in Batesville, each coming up short against Memphis University School.

According to both coaches, the Tigers and Conquistadors share more than a loss to a Tennessee team ranked 19th nationally by Rivals.com.

"I think there are a lot of similarities between their team and ours," Olive Branch coach Scott Samsel said. "They've got a lot of first-year starters, while we have nine new faces on defense and eight on offense. But they're still a good football team with a lot of talent and speed. Anybody who thinks they're not up to par, needs (to rethink)."

Each offense features a big-time producer at running back. Nick Parker has rushed for 482 yards and six TDs for South Panola, while fellow senior Keshun Shipp has piled up 735 rushing yards for Olive Branch.

Shipp runs behind a line that includes Damien Robinson and Shon Coleman — arguably the state's two most heavily recruited offensive linemen in the Class of 2010 — at tackle.

"They're running the ball more than they have in the past," South Panola coach Lance Pogue said. "They've got a great big offensive line that's become more physical coming off the ball."

Olive Branch will likely need a consistent surge up front from Robinson, Coleman and Co. to end an 11-game losing streak against the state's most prominent program. Three of those losses came in the finals of the North Mississippi Class 5A playoffs.

Still, Samsel — who played for the Quistors and graduated in 1979 — doesn't want to turn Friday's game into a regular-season Super Bowl. The matchup, which is expected to draw an overflow crowd to Dunlap Stadium, will be televised live statewide throughout Mississippi as the second of five games in the Y'all vs. Us rivalry series.

"Obviously, we'd like to win every game we play," Samsel said. "This one gets a lot of recognition, but at the end of the day it's not any more important than the other region games. There are a lot of people in Olive Branch who would argue that Southaven is a bigger rivalry."

Like Samsel, Pogue sees the game as another chance to measure his young team's progress.

"We feel like we've been steadily improving," said Pogue, who's 33-2 in his third year with the Tigers. "We're a lot better than we were six weeks ago. We've got nine new starters on defense, three new starters on the offensive line and a new quarterback. We're still a work in progress."