Friday night’s District 4-5A football game between the New Iberia Senior High Yellow Jackets and the Westgate High Tigers is what football is all about.

The two district rivals from opposite ends of New Iberia will play midtown at Lloyd G. Porter Stadium with the district lead on the line.

It’s the most meaningful game the two have played since they were placed in the same Class 5A district in 2003.

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In the six district games the two teams have played since then, neither team has been more than a game over .500 at the time of their meeting.

Their records at the time of previous matchups: Both teams were 2-3 in 2003 and 3-2 in 2004; NISH was 1-7 and Westgate 3-4 in 2005; New Iberia was 3-6 and Westgate 5-4 in 2006; the Jackets were 3-2 and Tigers 2-3 in 2007; and New Iberia was 2-2 and WHS 1-2 in 2008.

Not so this year.

New Iberia is 6-0 for the first time since 1990, when the Yellow Jackets finished 10-2.

Prior to that, NISH hadn’t been 6-0 to start a season since 1981, when a loss to Lafayette in Week 7 ended a 26-game regular-season win streak for the Jackets. New Iberia was 10-0 for the regular season in 1979 and finished 14-1, losing 16-7 to St. Augustine in the Class 4A state championship game at Cajun Field. In 1980, the Jackets went 10-0 again in the regular season but lost in the first round of the playoffs. NISH finished 8-2 in 1981, a remarkable three-year run that saw the Jackets go 28-2 in the regular season and 32-4 overall.

Westgate, meanwhile, is 4-2 overall after playing one of the toughest preseason schedules in the state. The Tigers have beaten Breaux Bridge (ranked second in Class 4A at the time and sixth this week), Archbishop Shaw (ranked third in Class 5A at the time and 11th now), Eunice (one of the preseason favorites in Class 4A and and Carencro. Losses have been to Patterson (ranked seventh in Class 3A at the time and fifth currently) and Northside (currently ranked eighth in 4A).

For what it’s worth, Westgate and New Iberia have alternated wins since 2003, with WHS winning in odd-numbered years and NISH winning in even-numbered years.

That little nugget has no bearing on this year’s game, of course. What matters is that two pretty good teams, two rivals from the same city who know each other, whose players and coaches respect each other, will meet with the District 4-5A lead on the line.

The season won’t end for either team, win or lose, but the outcome will go a long way toward determining their postseason fates. This kind of game is what football is all about.

CHRIS LANDRY is the sports editor of The Daily Iberian.