The answer is 45-34

The question is what was Poplar Bluff's Week 3 score against Hannibal.

Poplar Bluff's loss may have ended with some confusion as I talked about in an earlier blog Friday during the Mules game with Cape Central.

With the Mules training 45-34 on the final play, quarterback Zach McAnulty's pass bounced off Greg Coble's hands to Jake Smith, who finished off a 32-yard touchdown. But the Mules were called for a holding penalty, taking away the six points, and the game ended.

Did the Pirates decline the penalty and the score should be 45-40?

Hannibal coach Mark St. Clair responded to that question in an email by saying, "The final score was 45-34."

So should the Mules have gotten another snap?

That's not so simple. After talking with John Muench, director of the SEMO Football Officials Association, here's what I concluded happened.

NFL rules state that a penalty on the offensive team in the final play of the period, nullifies the play and the period ends, while a penalty on the defense results in another untimed down. In high school, that is not the case. Regardless of which teams is penalized, there should be another play.

However, since the Mules trailed by more than eight points, another play was not necessary because the outcome of that play could not change the fact that Hannibal won.

Had the margin been eight points or less, the Mules probably would have been given another snap. Since it was not a district game, which does take into account the margin of victory, it was also not necessary to play another down.

A similar situation happened last year in Poplar Bluff's game against Sikeston. The Bulldogs returned an interception with no time left to beat the Mules 34-28. Normally the point-after attempt would not be tried following a touchdown with no time left. However, since MSHSAA's tiebreaker is based on a point system, it is needed.

The good news for the Mules is that the margin of a victory or loss during the first seven weeks does not go into account for any other district tiebreakers. For future reference, you can read the tiebreaking procedure here, starting on page 6.