By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Braylun Huglon was four years old in 2012, when it began.
Rodney Guin was coaching at Haughton then, a couple of years after his quarterback signed with Mississippi State. That worked out very well for Dak Prescott, although he was the backup QB in his redshirt freshman season at Hail State in 2012.
Calvary Baptist won its last district game in Week 10 that year. The Cavaliers haven’t lost in league play since. Their streak is 68 in a row, most of them not very competitive, like Friday night’s 48-0 takedown of Union Parish, in a matchup of teams that carried 3-0 marks in District 1-2A into homecoming night at Jerry Barker Stadium.
This one was expected to be closer than the Cavaliers’ other district contests, this year or most any other. It was not.
“I didn’t see us giving up a scoop and score on the first series, and continuing to go downhill from there,” said Farmers’ coach Joe Spatafora. “That’s things you can’t do against a good team.”
“We came out fast. We came out quick,” said Cavaliers’ senior safety Luke Miller, “and we really made some plays on both sides of the ball.”
Yes they did. Rapidly. It looked like a vintage Mike Tyson fight. Most of those 68 straight have.
“I didn’t think this would happen. The turnovers (six, two for touchdowns) were such a difference,” said Guin. “We played well on defense, we (Ty Knight) kicked the ball well and kept them pinned on their end when we scored.
“We did a lot of stuff right,” he said. Such as …
Just 52 seconds into the game, senior safety Garrett Lee fielded a fumble and scooted in from 8 yards. Calvary (6-1, 4-0) doubled the lead on its third offensive play with Z’Ryan Miles sweeping 41 yards, unimpeded down his team’s sideline.
The Cavs made it 21-0 on their fifth snap, less than eight minutes since the game kicked off. Huglon dashed past a defender and gathered a well-thrown toss by first-year starter Hudson Price for a 50-yard TD.
On Calvary’s very next play, following a long, fruitless Farmers’ drive, Huglon and Price connected again. It was an 80-yard strike, the most spectacular moment of the night, with Huglon overcoming double coverage down the Union sideline.
“The one I caught over two people, I ain’t gonna lie, I thought I wasn’t going to catch it,” said the junior receiver, cornerback and returner who is already among the state’s elite Class of 2027 recruits. “But if I see ball, I’m gonna get ball.”
Calvary ran 10 offensive plays – just 10 — and led 35-0 at halftime. Three more snaps into the second half, a 38-yard Miles dash made it 41-0, and cued the running clock.
The Homecoming ceremony, introducing nearly three dozen senior girls, took a half-hour at halftime. With only a few brief stops after scores and the quarter change, the second half lasted only a couple minutes longer than the procession did.
What will be remembered from that truncated last two quarters? Miller time.
He halted Union’s best chance with an interception, and housed it – length of the field, 100 yards, matching one by Huglon three weeks earlier in a win over Class 4A Franklin Parish.
“I’ve been waiting for one of those all season. I caught it in the end zone and part of me felt like going down right there,” said Miller, “but with a game like this and the atmosphere, I wanted to run that one back. My boys were blocking for me, and really sacrificed it for me.”
He got a clearing block near midfield from middle linebacker Jacob Tibbett and cruised the rest of the way. It had unintended consequences, however. It denied the second-team offense some extra action.
“We were going to put them in on the next series,” said Guin, “but then we got Luke’s interception and we were back on defense. We didn’t get the second offense as many plays as we wanted. But our JV kids, their game’s on Monday and they play the whole game on Monday. These starters work hard and they’re going to play the majority of the varsity games.”
The backups got in on some snaps. The vaunted Calvary concession stand still had a line 15-20 deep throughout the final minutes. The starters contemplated the biggest remaining questions – could they cap homecoming by rolling Guin’s house? Did they dare?
Maybe after such an overwhelming performance, the coach might tolerate such an incursion.
“We did really good in both – rolling a lot of great houses (during the week), and making a lot of great plays out here,” said Miller. “We haven’t hit coach Guin yet but we just broke it down on ‘rolling coach!’ so maybe tonight.”
That turned out to be the only thing the Cavaliers didn’t get done.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com