By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Airline has scored 98 points in its last two District 1-5A victories, and the Vikings are 6-1 overall, 3-0 in district heading into Friday’s showdown at home against undefeated Haughton.
Looks like coach Justin Scogin’s team is peaking at the right time, with a Week 9 contest against the third team perfect through three 1-5A games, Evangel. And there’s the Week 10 crosstown battle with the rugged archrival Dirty Red from SouthBo, Parkway.
So driving home from Independence Stadium last Friday after putting away a dangerous, talented Huntington squad 47-20, the Vikings had to be riding high.
Nope.
“We didn’t feel like we played our best game,” said Scogin. “We started out good and we ended good, but it wasn’t our A-game. You look up and you score 47 and it’s like, we just didn’t execute well tonight.
But, he conceded to his players, “you gotta just enjoy it.”
The Vikings’ putdown of Huntington, on the heels of a blowout of Benton, has them front and center as a 1-5A contender and as this week’s Shreveport-Bossier Journal Team of the Week.
Airline is one ugly fourth quarter from being unbeaten. In its fourth game, at home, Airline led Class 4A power Franklin Parish by 10 headed into the fourth quarter but was outscored 27-6 in the final 12 minutes, nearly single-handedly by the Patriots’ Trey Martin. The LSU running back commit scored six touchdowns, three in the final period.
The Vikings fumbled on fourth down with Franklin Parish leading by four points midway through the collapse. Then came a lackluster performance in the district debut at Natchitoches Central, which pushed Airline to the final seconds in a 32-29 Vikings’ victory.
“I challenged them. ‘We’ve got to have better energy, got to be a little bit more intense, a little bit more focused on what we’re doing,’ ” recalled Scogin. His team responded in practice and then throughout a 57-38 rout of Benton, dancing, disjointed but very much in unison, on the sideline throughout.
“The last two weeks, our energy on the sideline has been great. Our pregame routine, we hammered down on, and our kids have bought in, and we’re much better for it,” he said.
“We’ve got great kids. We have a phenomenal coaching staff and it’s important that we just enjoy scoring 47 points,” said Scogin, “and winning week after week after week.”
Aside from channeling Deney Terio’s Dance Fever, the Vikings have made big progress in special teams and (gasp) when they don’t have the ball.
“The biggest thing is defensively, we had the rough game against Franklin Parish, really against the one guy, and I thought they’ve done a good job of bouncing back every week. They played great against Natchitoches Central outside of one drive and they played phenomenal against Benton. Then they played their best game against Huntington,” Scogin said.
Going against Byrd’s Christian Maxie, who is vastly underrecruited per Scogin, and the Patriots’ Martin, one of the country’s top-rated backs, “I think it’s going to get us ready. It prepares us for weeks like this week and the next two. It’s not like there’s any weeks we can just say, ‘hey, we’re going to win.’ We’ve got to play our best at this point of the season when we’re playing the best out there.”
Airline’s offense has weathered some knocks. Injuries in weeks 2 and 3 cost the Vikes two of their best assets, Preston Hughes and Drew Warren. Recently, the offense has revved up with an ensemble surrounding stars Chase Williams at quarterback, running back Chris Hart (78 yards per game) and leading receiver Terrance Hays, who also gets 58 yards a game at running back.
“These last couple weeks, it’s been 5-6 guys and we’ve kind of seen the emergence of Nathan White, who’s a sophomore, Sir Charles Marshall, who’s a freshman, Caleb Nunn, who’s a sophomore, and others,” said Scogin.
At Huntington, White ran for three scores and Williams, also a senior, added two. Williams is nearing 2,000 passing yards with Hays having almost 50 catches.
The Vikings are sailing along into three games that will define their season, and Scogin likes the feeling.
“I think we’re on a good path,” he said. “We haven’t really been in a tight game where we’ve had to play our best, so that’s gonna be fun here coming up.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com