Maryville coach Chris Holt and Savannah Mark Cole’s longstanding friendship helped bring a new twist into an old rivalry, starting with tonight’s MEC clash at Savage Field.

The two started pondering the idea for a traveling trophy to award in the annual rivalry game between Savannah and Maryville. With Savannah’s fast start, the two converged a couple of weeks ago to make it a reality.

Cole — in his first year at Savannah — came up with the idea of a refurbished U.S. Highway 71 road sign to serve as the trophy. Holt, in his third year at Maryville, came

Holt, the third-year coach at Maryville, came up with a moniker, dubbing the matchup “71 Showdown.”

Holt and Cole previously served as Grand River Conference rivals when Holt was at Princeton and Cole at Gallatin. Holt left for Maryville following the 2005 season, and the chance to renew their rivalry came this year when Cole accepted the job at Savannah.

“We’ve always talked about rivalry games and having something to play for. We’d always talked about how nice that would be,” Cole said. “When I got this job and I found out how heated the rivalry was, it was something I mentioned over the summer. It kind of built up, and our hot start, obviously added something to this game.”

Savannah coach Traci Westfall helped the coaches track down the recycled sign, which was donated by MoDot.

Streak is over

Gallatin’s Colton Selby returned a kickoff 80 yards during the second quarter last Friday against Princeton, assuring the Tigers wouldn’t record a fourth straight shutout.

Princeton (6-0, ranked No. 4 by the AP in Class 1) blanked Maysville, Albany and King City the previous three weeks, outscoring those three opponents 104-0. Nathan Wilson had just given the Tigers a 15-0 first-half lead on a touchdown catch from quarterback Troy Meinke.

The last team to score against Princeton prior to Gallatin was Polo during the waning moments of a 50-8 loss to the Tigers in Week 2. South Harrison was the last team to score on Princeton’s varsity was South Harrison when Danan Knott caught a touchdown pass with 1:27 left in the third quarter Week 1.

Wilson’s touchdown catch also ended another streak. Prior to that completion, Mace Ormsby caught the previous 12 completed passes for the Tigers.

Super Manning

In a season deprived of positives, Polo junior Dean Manning turned in a stellar performance last Friday against Albany.

Not only did he help the Panthers to a second victory, 40-15, but his stat line rivaled any put up in the area this season.

Manning recorded 14 tackles (nine solo) from his defensive tackle spot. In addition, he accounted for five sacks, seven tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery — which he returned for a touchdown.

Polo’s coaching staff also noted that the Panthers ran behind Manning on offense most of the game to the tune of 250 rushing yards, the best running performance of the season for Polo.