Thirty-five days later, Poplar Bluff and Jackson will meet again in another high-stakes football game at Mules Stadium.
This time the two long-time rivals meet with a spot in the MSHSAA Class 5 District 1 championship game on the line while the loser turning in their pads.
Jackson (7-2) is looking to avenge a 29-28 loss to the Mules (9-0), who are looking to prove it was no fluke and continue their unbeaten season.
With two weeks to prepare thanks to a first-round bye, both teams are rested and ready.
"The week off has been good for us," Mules coach Mark Barousse said. "I'm sure it's the same thing for them."
Other than the weather (bundle up and be prepared for rain), the biggest difference between the two meetings will be Poplar Bluff's starting quarterback.
Logan Bell, who threw for a career-high 316 yards against the Indians, is sidelined with a knee injury while Mason Libla will make his second career start. The senior is coming off a 201-yard passing performance at Festus in which he threw for two touchdowns and completed 14 of 15 attempts.
Both teams were without their leading targets for much of the night during the first meeting with Jackson junior Jordan Kent slowed by an injury. Poplar Bluff played the second half without Tyson Cox, who suffered a knee injury and didn't play offense or defense over the next two games.
Cox returned against Festus, catching six passes for 82 yards, while Kent has over 1,000 receiving yards for the season and caught four touchdown passes in Jackson's last game.
"From what we saw on film they're pretty much at full strength and we'll have everybody but Logan," Barousse said.
Jackson comes in averaging 50.8 points per game led by quarterback Cooper Callis. The senior has thrown for over 3,000 yards with 45 touchdown passes to 10 interceptions. He threw for two touchdowns and 263 yards against the Mules on 26 of 40 attempts.
Senior running back Ethan Laster is 11 yards shy of 1,000 for the season after running for 176 yards in Jackson's 65-42 win at SLUH. Laster ran for 96 yards on 18 attempts, including a 27-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to give Jackson a 28-16 lead against the Mules.
That first meeting five weeks ago featured three lead changes, the final with 3:14 to play when Brett Barousse returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown.
Turnovers were also the difference early in the game with the Indians building a 14-6 lead after the Mules fumbled a snap at the Jackson 6-yard line.
Both teams missed chances to pull away. Jackson lost two fumbles near midfield and had two more drives stopped inside the Mules 30-yard line. Poplar Bluff was stopped inside Jackson's 13-yard line three times and kicked a field goal on a fourth drive.
Jackson kept drives moving by converting 5 of 6 fourth downs, the only stop coming in the third quarter on a fourth-and-13 at the Mules 30-yard line with a chance to extend a 21-16 lead.
While the previous meeting had a conference title on the line, the winner Friday will get a shot next week at the district title.
In the five previous years with the current playoff system, the Mules have never reached the championship game.
Poplar Bluff's only loss at Mules Stadium came in the district semifinal last year against Vianney. The Mules could get another shot at the defending state champs with a win Friday. Jackson also had its season end last year to the Golden Griffins in the district final. All three top seeds had a bye last week.
Even with the extra week of preparation, Coach Barousse said he doesn't expect either team to do much differently.
"I'm sure they'll tweak a few things and we'll tweak a few things I'm sure," he said. "Good teams usually don't scrap everything they're doing just to try to trick somebody for one week. I expect we'll see pretty much what we did last time."
That's not to say there are changes each team makes from week to week but when teams have tried to mix things up, the Mules have been able to make in-game adjustments.
Hillsboro gained 21 yards on the first play from scrimmage with a wrinkle in its offense but it turned out to be the longest gain of the night and Poplar Bluff rallied for a 21-20 win. Festus flipped its defensive look the following week in Poplar Bluff's 34-10 win while Sikeston also showed a different defensive look against the Mules.
"Everybody's got one or two things that they think for us to be successful early let's do this," Coach Barousse said. "A lot of it depends on how quickly you react to it. How quick you're able to change and adapt to what you want to do."