By MATT VINES, Journal Sports
After a defensive stop, Huntington took command early and rolled past visiting Haughton 56-27 in a District 1-5A contest at Independence Stadium Friday night.
The Raiders (3-1) moved to a perfect 3-0 in the league with a dismantling of the young Bucs (1-3, 0-3).
Huntington scored the game’s first 19 points and led 40-7 early in the third quarter.
After stopping a deep Haughton drive to the start the game, Raiders’ quarterback Landon Gibbs threw a 45-yard pass to start the scoring.
Kamron Davis rushed for an 8-yard touchdown before reeling in a 40-yard pass from Gibbs to lead 19-0 late in the first quarter.
Haughton answered with an Ethan Johnson four-yard scoring run, but the Raiders scored the three touchdowns to construct the insurmountable lead.
The Bucs did recover two onside kicks in the second half and pulled as close as 40-21 with a chance to make it a two-score game, but the Raiders defense settled and the Bucs would come no closer.
Huntington heads to west Shreveport next week to face an Evangel squad that’s lost its last two games. Haughton and Natchitoches Central will each be looking for their first district win between the pines next Friday night.
Parkway 40, Natchitoches Central 12: At Turpin Stadium on the Northwestern campus, the visiting Panthers remained undefeated (4-0, 2-0) by scoring the game’s first 26 points and never looking back.
Parkway did it largely without quarterback Kaleb Williams, who was injured on the third play of the game.
Coach Coy Brotherton said they’ll know more about the severity today.
Without its starting quarterback, Parkway by and large stuck to its running game as the offensive line created gaping holes in the Natchitoches Central defensive front.
Carmaro Mayo (two), CJ Dudley, Antonio Gladney and Jayden Lewis all scored rushing touchdowns to supply Parkway its points.
“We were able to establish the run and had some chunk plays.” Brotherton said. “The defense made stop after stop.”
With Natchitoches Central (1-3, 0-3) feverishly trying to make a game of it early in the third quarter, Mark Copenhaver intercepted an Owen Smith pass and returned it about 50 yards for the touchdown to quell any thoughts of a comeback.
Byrd 35, John Ehret 14: The unbeaten Yellow Jackets never trailed despite the lengthy road trip to the West Bank south of New Orleans.
Byrd (4-0) scored the first two touchdowns and staved off a couple of turnovers and several Patriot surges to come away with the road win.
Leading by two scores, the Yellow Jackets made a goal-line stand at the 1-yard line to end the third quarter.
Byrd marched 99 yards capped by a Collin Deere 23-yard touchdown run that chewed up the vast majority of the fourth quarter.
Byrd rolled up 382 rushing yards led by Desmond Simmons (17-177, two touchdowns). Deere, Quinton Hilliard and Christian Maxie all scored touchdowns against the Patriots (1-3).
“We have some things that we have to improve on, but we sure are glad to make a long road trip and get a win,” Byrd coach Stacy Ballew said on the postgame radio show. “We’ll continue to get better each week.”
The Yellow Jackets will next face fellow undefeated Parkway (4-0) in Bossier as they step back into District 1-5A play.
Contact Matt at sports@journalservicesllc.com