By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
There’s definite line of demarcation in the District 1-4A football race this year. There are clearly defined haves and have nots.
The only district losses that North DeSoto (5-0), Northwood (4-1), Minden (4-1) and Loyola (4-1) have are against each other. Against the other four teams in the district, they are a combined 14-0.
But it has taken until Week 9 for the planets to align so that the four top teams in the district will all be playing against each other. North DeSoto (6-2 overall) will travel to Messmer Stadium to play Loyola (6-2) while Northwood (7-1) is headed to W.W. Williams Stadium (aka The Pit) to meet Minden (7-1).
Loyola coach John Sella is happy with how the schedule has played out for his Flyers, who made the big jump from Class 2A to 4A this year.
“This is a huge game for us and where it fell in the schedule allowed us to prepare for what it’s like to play in 4A,” the first-year coach said. “To be able to play this game this late in the schedule with still having something to play for has everybody excited.”
Not only do the Flyers have the Griffins this week but they’ll be on the road to play Northwood next week. Nevertheless, they know that a win Friday would put them in a tie for first place heading into the final week of the season.
Both the Flyers and Griffins feature balanced running and passing games, but North DeSoto’s offensive pace is unlike anything Loyola has seen this year.
“It’s tough to prepare for and if we get off to a slow start, I’m not going to be extremely surprised,” Sella said. “You can’t prepare for that. We tried to explain it (to the players) but you don’t see it on video because it cuts between plays and you don’t see how quickly they are getting back up to the line to run another play. We are going to have to adjust to it quickly.”
Northwood’s biggest adjustment will be up front in trying to handle the size of the Crimson Tide. “They are comfortable in who they are offensively,” said Northwood coach Austin Brown. “We’ve struggled with this kind of offensive system (wing T) in the past. We are going to have to shore up what we did earlier in the year against this type of offense.”
Minden has one of the best defensive lines in the area, which will be another challenge for the Falcons.
“They are the biggest team we are going to go against all year, so we will just have to go straight at them,” Brown said.
In the other games in the district, Booker T. Washington (3-5, 1-4) will play host to Southwood (0-7, 0-5) and Bossier (3-5, 1-4) will play Woodlawn 2-6, 1-4) at Independence Stadium.
In District 1-2A, Calvary (6-2, 4-0) will take on Green Oaks (1-7, 0-4) at Jerry Burton Stadium and North Caddo (3-5, 2-2) goes to Homer (3-5, 2-2).
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com