By TEDDY ALLEN, Journal Sports
After a dominating 39-14 road win over previously unbeaten District 1-5A leader Parkway last Friday, C.E. Byrd football, back in the hunt after two straight losses, must have enjoyed a pretty sweet week.
“Sweet?” Byrd coach Stacy Ballew said. “Well not real sweet. We got Airline now and they’re averaging, what, 50 points a game?”
In district play, that’d be 52 points game, and All Those Points have helped the Vikings, 4-3, get to 4-0 in 1-5A and No. 1 in the Shreveport-Bossier Journal Top 10 poll.
The Vikings and Byrd (5-2, 2-2) meet at 7 tonight in Lee Hedges Stadium.
“It might not look like it to the average fan in the stands, but they’re very balanced in what they do,” Ballew said of Airline’s wide-open, up-tempo, stretch-the-field offense. “Defensively (at practice) this week, yes, we’re saying ‘Get back’ a lot to our defensive backs and ‘Watch the vertical,’ because (the Vikings are) throwing the ball deep.”
In last week’s 55-42 win over Haughton, Airline passed for 314 yards, rushed for 221, and had 22 plays of 10-plus yards.
“They’re so multiple in what they do,” Ballew said. “They’re throwing it, but they’re running the ball well. Inside runs. Outside runs. Shovel passes. Bombs. Not just one thing … they do quite a few things, and right now, they’re doing them all good.”
Byrd will counter with a triple option that Airline coach Justin Scogin says the Yellow Jackets “run to perfection.”
“The way they do stuff on offense, it’s so well-timed,” Scogin said. “Been telling our guys all week, it’ll catch you by surprise. And the way they play defense is very precise and they play extremely hard. That’s what I’ve told our guys will stick out, how efficient they are and how hard they play.”
Byrd quarterback Lake Lambert returned from concussion protocol to engineer an efficient passing game — 5 of 8 for 76 yards — and rushed for 121 yards on 16 carries in last week’s win at Parkway; the Yellow Jackets finished with a healthy 309 yards on 50 carries.
While Byrd figures to show Airline more of the same with its efficient option, the Vikings “always want to add stuff in,” Scogin said. “Our assistant coaches do such a good job of suggesting something we haven’t done before with this player or that one; they figure out the blocking scheme and the skill side of it. Makes it easier for me.”
Something will have to give as Byrd’s Purple Swarm defense is coming off its best performance of the season.
“We played so well on defense; did a great job of stopping their running back (Jaylan White) who’s so good,” Ballew said. “And offensively, we didn’t turn it over; that was the key. Coming off a two-game losing streak, our kids never gave up. There was no quit in them, they had a great week of practice, and then they performed well. And Parkway is a good football team. They’ve got athletes and lots of them. They’re not hurting; it’s just that on both sides of the ball, we played well.
“We’ve got a bunch of kids playing hard every single play.”
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
Airline (4-3, 4-0) vs. Byrd (5-2, 2-2)
Where: Lee Hedges Stadium
Series: Byrd 29-17
Last year: Byrd 51-27
Last week: Airline beat Haughton 55-42; Byrd beat Parkway 39-14
Rankings: Airline is #1 in SBJ; Byrd is #3 in SBJ poll
LHSAA Power Ratings: Airline #11 in Non-Select Div. I; Byrd #3 Select Div. I
Radio: Byrd (The Tigers, 1130 AM, 103.3 FM)
Notables: Airline played Haughton on Thursday last week, but Scogin didn’t attend the Byrd-Parkway game Friday night. “I don’t get enough time to spend with my family as is,” he said, “so I was with them. If I go to a game, my family is usually with me, or I’ll go with my dad. Really, if you show up for a game (to scout), it’s for something like trying to figure out how fast they go. I can get the rest of what I need on film.” Team Scogin is expecting its second child soon after football season … Against Haughton, the Vikings’ heralded wide receiver, Daxton Chavez, was held to one catch for 37 yards — a fly pattern and he stretched to make the catch with his fingertips — but that left Cameron Jefferson (10-107), Tre Jackson (8-93), Bryson Broom (3-46), and tight end Bob Patterson (2-31) open for business. “Anybody who knows anything much about football knows people try to take your best players away,” Scogin said. “On the sideline, Dax was saying, ‘Hey, they’re taking me away. It’s y’all’s time to shine.’ One, it’s a badge of honor (for him) that they’re trying to stop him, and two, he was thrilled for Cam and Tre and Bob and Kylin (Jackson) and the rest of the guys. All we heard from him was, ‘Y’all keep it up. Keep the ball rollin’ and keep playin’” … For his part, Scogin calls himself an “Equal Opportunity Touchdown Guy. When we get to the goal line, I’m not thinking, ‘Let’s make sure Cam scores’ or ‘Let’s make sure Tre scores.’ I call the best play I can think of and whoever is on that side, out of all these different guys, that’s the guy who’s gonna score. I never go into a game thinking, ‘Dax or anyone else has got to touch the ball 15 times.’”
This is the 47th meeting between C.E. Byrd and Airline. The series began in 1964. The Yellow Jackets lead the series 29-17. Airline’s 36-20 win over Byrd in 2017 snapped a 14-game win streak. Byrd has won 18 of 19 games against Airline since 2005 … The return of offensive skill players Lake Lambert and Josh Allen aided the Jackets in their 39-14 win over previously unbeaten Parkway. Lambert, Byrd’s quarterback, rushed for a game-high 114 yards, including two touchdowns, and Allen, a wingback, added a couple of touchdown runs … Byrd’s All-City linebacker Brooks Brossette led the Yellow Jacket defense last week with 10 tackles. It’s the third week in a row that Brossette has had double-digit tackles, and the fourth occurrence this season. In the last 20 years, only five Byrd players have recorded more tackles than Brossette.
