By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
(NOTE – as the year nears its end, the SBJ staff is sharing a few of our favorite stories from 2025. This one was published Sept. 22)
No Texas Longhorns running back recruit James Simon. No national career passing accuracy leader Abram Wardell. No Kolby Thomas, the sure-handed receiver who dashed past defensive backs. No Ole Miss offensive line signee Devin Harper, or Air Force recruit Julius Moss, or ….
The Class of 2025 graduation list didn’t stop there for the Calvary Baptist football team.
But 1 remains. And Braylun Huglon is a pretty spectacular cornerstone for Rodney Guin’s new edition of Cavaliers.
“Number 1’s a football player, a special kid who works very hard,” said Guin Friday night, grinning broadly in the wake of Calvary’s stunning 33-30 victory over the state’s top-ranked Class 4A team, visiting Franklin Parish.
“What he gets, he deserves. We gotta get him the football, and he can make things happen.”
Understatement. Huglon, a junior defensive back and wide receiver, wasn’t a one-man wrecking crew, but what he did triggered the Class 2A Cavs’ upset at Jerry Barker Field, on a night when Calvary dedicated its sparkling Helen Barker Fieldhouse.
He got things going with a 56-yard touchdown catch from sophomore Hudson Price moments after the opening kickoff. They combined again late in the first period on an 8-yarder for a 13-0 lead.
And when Franklin Parish drove 12 plays to the Calvary 8 ending the first half, poised to cut into a 16-0 deficit, there was Huglon with his biggest splash, a 100-yard pick six, weaving from three yards deep in the end zone, flowing past Patriots, untouched, as the halftime horn sounded.
That 23-0 lead grew to 30-6 early in the second half. Franklin Parish rose up, even more so than Calvary expected, and twice closed within one score, at 30-24 and then with six minutes left, 33-30.
That’s when Price, bowling ball fullback Z’Ryan Miles and a reconstructed offensive line did what it took, mounting a 10-play drive that wiped out all but the last 1:26 and left Franklin Parish at its own 20. The Cavaliers’ defense kept the pressure on Patriots quarterback Dezrian Ellis and the visitors from Winnsboro got no further than their own 32.
“This is a huge one for us. It means a bunch,” said Guin, whose team had been manhandled at 5A power Neville, 38-14, a week earlier, and was coping with injuries that made a young offensive front a younger, unsteady offensive front.
“We just don’t have bodies up there,” said Guin. “But they battled tonight.”
Said senior O-line stalwart Hunter Davis: “A bunch of people got hurt, so we had to move a lot of people around, and it was pretty rough the first two weeks. But we stepped up big time this week, and came out here and dominated.”
Calvary (2-1, sixth in the Class 2A state top 10 poll) handled the heat and got a win that might well define the rest of this season.
“Our team grew up tonight,” said Huglon. “Our quarterback, he’s just a sophomore, and he grew up tonight. The line played very well tonight.”
“I didn’t get sacked a single time,” said Price. “I didn’t get tackled a single time. They were great.”
Steering the Cavs to their first big win without Wardell guiding the offense, Price completed 17 of 23 for 181 yards, albeit with two interceptions, one run back for a touchdown. But the final score was all that mattered.
“I’ve been waiting for this since I came here, in the fifth grade,” he said. “I dreamed of being the quarterback here, and finally it came true.”
Two pivotal factors, said Guin, were kicker Ty Knight and the Cavs’ defense. Knight nailed field goals of 34 and 30 yards, the second one boosting the lead to 33-24 with 11:02 to go. After the Patriots answered to draw within three, they got nowhere with the game on the line at the end.
“The kicker was huge for us. That’s the difference in the game, that we had two field goals.
“I thought we tackled well tonight, especially in space. You give up 30 points, somebody would think you didn’t play good defense, but we really did,” said Guin.
Patriots coach Adrian Burnette knew what his explosive team was getting into, although they weren’t going to face so many of last season’s prime time performers who were shocked at Winnsboro 32-28 a year ago.
“I don’t give a damn what people say, at the end of the day you’ve got teams and you’ve got programs. Teams live for the year, programs live for decades, and that’s what Calvary Baptist is,” he said. “They’re a great program. You got what you’re supposed to get tonight.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com