By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
With all the changes in playoff structure, district play might not as much as it did before. But it still counts for something.
District 1-5A has been involved in it for two weeks and Districts 1-4A and 1-2A hop on board tonight with a full schedule of games.
The highlight games in those two districts will be the 1-4A battle between Northwood (3-0) at North DeSoto (1-2) and 1-2A’s matchup of 3-0 D’Arbonne Woods headed to Calvary (2-0).
North DeSoto is ranked No. 6 in the latest Class 4A poll while Northwood is receiving votes. In the 2A poll, Calvary is ranked No. 2 despite losses in the last two weeks (to higher classification teams).
“All the games mean the same, but we don’t shy away from wanting to be district champions,” Northwood coach Austin Brown said. “So I guess we kinda talk out of both sides of our mouth.”
The premier game in 1-5A play appears to be Evangel (1-2) taking on Airline (3-0) at Viking Stadium. The game will feature two of the area’s top quarterbacks in Airline senior Ben Taylor and Evangel sophomore Peyton Houston.
There should be no shortage of footballs filling the air, but just don’t try to tell Viking head coach Justin Scogin that he needs to try to “outscore” the Eagles.
“I know it comes off like we try to outscore everybody, but we don’t ever go into a game thinking that way,” he said. “We do try to put pressure on people non-stop, which is why we go for it on fourth down a lot. The object of the game is to win the game. I don’t care if we win 10-7.”
The Vikings have scored at least 52 points in all three of their wins so far this year. Scogin knows his defense will have to make some stops against Houston, who completed 24 of 33 passes for 362 yards last week and ran for another 75 yards in a loss to Byrd.
“He’s really good and he makes plays with his legs as well as his arm,” Scogin said. “He’s always making something happen.”
The other four district games all involve one team with a winning record taking on a team with a losing record. Captain Shreve (2-1, 1-1) will travel to Benton (0-3, 0-2), Haughton (1-2, 0-2) will play Huntington (2-1, 2-0) at Independence Stadium and Parkway (3-0, 1-0) will hit the road and travel to Natchitoches Central (1-2, 0-2).
Byrd has a non-district game in the New Orleans-area against the John Ehret Patriots.
North DeSoto is the pretty clear favorite in District 1-4A, but the Falcons have been rolling through the non-district schedule, having scored 135 points in three games.
Most would agree that this looks like a matchup of the top two teams as district play begins.
After those two, it’s hard to tell in the newly formed district. Minden is still unbeaten at 3-0 and Loyola and BTW are both 2-1. Of the 18 non-district games played by teams other than Northwood and North DeSoto, 17 have been against lower classification teams – and eight have been against Class 1A.
Loyola will be at home to take on Southwood in the first meeting between the two schools since 1976. The Flyers have allowed only four touchdowns through the first three games.
The other two games will have Woodlawn (1-2) traveling to The Pit to take on Minden while Bossier (1-2) will be at BTW (2-1).
In 1-2A openers, Green Oaks is at home (Jerry Burton Stadium) against new district opponent Union Parish (0-3) and Magnolia (0-2) will be in Vivian to play North Caddo (2-1).
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
GAME BROADCASTS TONIGHT
Benton — The Benton Tiger Sports Network, https://network1sports.com/station/benton
Byrd — 1130 AM The Tiger
Calvary — Promise 90.7 FM
Captain Shreve — The River, 95.7 FM