We are definitely in a new age of football and even more at the high school level. Scoring is out of control, game attendance certainly isn’t what it used to be, and nobody wears knee pads anymore.
It really doesn’t even resemble what it was at the start of the century.
Or last century.
There are three schools in the area that have been playing football for (give or take) 100 years and two of them teed it up Thursday night.
Appropriately, they played at Bossier’s Memorial Stadium, a structure dedicated to those who fought in wars a lifetime ago.
When Bossier and Loyola first started playing football, leather helmets were a new innovation. It’s been so long that Loyola has undergone not one but two school name changes and one nickname change.
Once named St. John’s (before becoming Jesuit and now Loyola), the school name was changed from the Orioles to the Flyers in 1938 to honor Barksdale Air Force Base, located a couple of left turns away from Bossier High.
Loyola has played — and lost to Bossier – more than any other opponent in its history. In all of the stadiums at which the Flyers have played at least five games, the one at which they have the worst record has been Memorial Stadium.
All kinds of great historical nuggets, right?
But here’s the deal: None of that mattered when Bossier kicked off to Loyola Thursday night.
Calvin Coolidge (“Silent Cal”) was the U.S. president when these two had their first meeting in 1926. It took the Flyers until 1957 to even score 20 points in a game against Bossier.
In Thursday’s game, they had done that by the middle of the second quarter.
The good news for the Bearkats is that they held the Flyers under their per game average. The bad news is that Loyola came into the game averaging 58.6 points per game, so there wasn’t much celebrating as the Flyers still managed to put 56 and weren’t stopped until on any possession until a “mercy” punt with less than a minute to go.
Final – Loyola 56, Bossier 26, which is a long way from the that 1926 initial meeting in which the two teams combined to pour in zero points apiece. It took five years in this series to score more than the combined point total in this one (82).
For the Flyers, it was another business-as-usual offensive performance: Quarterback Bryce Restovich threw for more than 300 yards (317) and six touchdown passes,– again — running back Mason Drake ran for more than 100 yards (133) and the Flyer receivers caught everything in sight with two receivers (sophomores Charlie McKenzie and Ty Walsworth) having more than 100 yards each for the second straight game.
That’s exactly how they have rolled to a 6-0 record this season.
But what they haven’t seen this season is anything like Bearkat quarterback Montrevelle Lewis, which would be enough to make even Silent Cal speak up.
It’s one thing to put up monster numbers – 96 rushing, 231 passing and accounted for all four touchdowns – but it’s another to watch how he did it.
As he continued to be more and more unstoppable as they game went on – his final touchdown on a 36-yard scramble left numerous Flyers flailing at his heels – one thing became obvious: Bossier was doing Loyola a favor every time Lewis didn’t carry the ball.
“Some of our guys on defense were disappointed in how they played, but what are you going to do?” Loyola coach John Sella said. “He makes you miss and he never stops his legs. And it doesn’t seem like he ever gets tired. It makes it tough when you cover everything perfectly and he gets out in space and there’s nothing you can do.”
Significant side note: Lewis is only a sophomore. (High school sophomore, not college.)
That may not be the Flyers’ problem for the rest of the year. But it will be somebody’s.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com