By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

One way or another, Thursday was going to be a rough day for the scoreboard at Airline Stadium.

As it turned out, it’s probably a good idea that the scoreboard took the night off rather than deal with the assault the Vikings were putting up in the first half.

A power surge near the stadium around noon actually put the game in jeopardy for a few hours and the game was played with just enough lighting to get by, sans scoreboard, game clock and play clock.

Not that any of those really mattered.

But there was enough electricity supplied from the Vikings’ offense to make this pretty clear: The Airline offense is a handful. That is, unless you aren’t impressed by 54 points.

In the first half.

The Vikings scored early and often in opening the District 1-5A season with a 60-35 win over Benton that was even more one-sided than the score might appear.

Here was the night for Airline quarterback Ben Taylor: Complete 17 of 23 passes in the first half, throw for 455 yards, have seven touchdown passes, play one series in the second half and do nothing but handoff and then take the rest of the night off.

Is that any good?

“There’s not many more things you can say about him,” said Airline coach Justin Scogin. “Last year, he really didn’t know all the ins and outs of the offense. He made up his mind this year to learn everything that’s going on and that’s a huge reason he’s having the success he’s having.”

The highest passer rating an NFL quarterback can possibly have in a game is 158.3. Taylor’s was 155.3 – in one half.

It would almost be boring to go through the progression of scores that the Vikings put on the board, but there were two moments of particular note that told the story of the night for the junior quarterback and the Airline offense.

On the first play of the game, Taylor found Jarvis Davis on a perfectly executed fade route down the near sideline that resulted in a 63-yard touchdown. It was a play that should be used as a tutorial on how to throw the pass and run the route. The Benton defender had it played well, yet had no chance. Zero.

It wasn’t as if the Airline staff had planned on opening with that play all week.

“They came out in a look we weren’t expecting,” Taylor said. “There was no high safety, so we called the fade.”

“We throw the fade at least 100 times a day,” Scogin said. “And I’m not kidding. We start practice throwing the fade, we throw it during practice and we throw it in group. When you take it serious in practice, you get really good at throwing it. He (Taylor) knows exactly how to throw it and where to put it.”

The other play of significance had far less fanfare; in fact, it was hardly even noticeable. Late in the second quarter, Taylor threw a pass to tight end Bob Patterson that was, well, flat out dropped.

Patterson was pretty dejected after the ball hit the ground but even though it was 20 yards downfield, Taylor ran all the way to Patterson to pat him on the helmet and then jogged with him back to the line of scrimmage.

The Vikings scored anyway on that series (like they did every series in the first half) and when they went back to the sideline, Taylor made it a point to find Patterson.

“I just told him to keep his head up,” Taylor said. “I told him I was going to throw him a touchdown when we back out. I had no idea we’d actually do it, but we did.”

With 1:42 to go in the half, Airline got the ball again and on the fifth play, guess who caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from Taylor for his only reception of the game: Bob Patterson.

With a 54-21 lead at halftime, the Vikings did not throw a pass during the entire second half.

Taylor had three receivers with 100-yard nights: Bryson Broom (155), Davis (138) and Tre Jackson (124).

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

AIRLINE 60, BENTON 35

B             7              14           0              14           — 35

A             27           27           6              0              — 60

A – Jarvis Davis 63 pass from Ben Taylor (Preston Doerner kick)

A – Bryson Broom 60 pass from Taylor (Doerner kick)

B – Jeff King 27 run (Will Petro kick)

A – Tre Jackson 13 pass from Taylor (Doerner kick)

A – Broom 22 pass from Taylor (kick failed)

A – Jackson 59 pass from Taylor (Doener kick)

B – Trey Smith 28 pass from King (Petro kick)

A – Broom 47 pass from Taylor (kick failed)

B – King 1 run (Petro kick)

A – Jackson 4 run (Doerner kick)

A – Bob Patterson 38 pass from Taylor (Doerner kick)

A – Brandon Cooper 9 run (kick failed)

B – Caden Lee (Petro kick)

 B – Jordan Johnson 4 pass from Malachi Zeigler (Petro kick) 

RUSHING: Benton (40-315), Manning 22-110, 14-114, Conner Jeter 10-49, Lee 6-42, Zeigler 2-0. Airline (19-159), Cooper 7-125, Jackson 4-30, Derrian Milligan 3-13, Broom 1-11, Christian Moore 1-8, Austin Smith 1-minus-2, Team 1-minus-18. 

PASSING: Benton (15-25-1-146-1), King 14-24-1-142-0, Zeigler 1-1-0-4-1. Airline (17-23-0-455-6), Taylor 17-23-0-455-7. 

RECEIVING: Benton, Manning 6-66, Smith 4-48, Jones 2-13, Chandler 2-23, Johnson 1-4. Airline, Broom 6-155, Davis 5-138, Jackson 5-124, Bob Patterson 1-38.

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Whether you are a player, coach or fan, it’s the game you look for with red pen in hand when you scan the upcoming high school football schedule.

There are usually 10 games listed, but one jumps out like it is printed in neon. THAT game.

Here in the middle of September, the rivalry stars have aligned for local high school football, proving that big games aren’t necessarily played at the end of the year.

The Soul Bowl was last week.

Byrd vs. Captain Shreve was last night. So was Airline vs. Benton.

The Brotherton Bowl is tonight.

Depending on who you talk to, these are “just another game” or a season-maker. You certainly got the impression that it was a season-maker for Booker T. Washington last week when the Lions came away with a 12-6 win over Green Oaks in the Soul Bowl.

More than any of the others, that’s a game you have to see to fully appreciate. If everything goes right for BTW this year and they were to clinch a district championship, it is very possible that the celebration would not match the one they had at Leonard C. Barnes Stadium.

“This is our Bayou Classic,” said BTW coach Gary Cooper in referencing the Grambling-Southern game played every year in the Superdome.

Byrd and Shreve students have been known to perform various shenanigans in the days leading up to their game. Even though Shreve coach Adam Kirby tries to downplay the significance with the ol’ “it’s big because it’s a district game,” that seems to fall on deaf eyes.

It’s a nice try, but that doesn’t change overnight.

Once upon a time, there was a definitive separation between Airline and Benton. Now, not so much. The line between north Bossier and Benton has just about disappeared. Benton was once a little Class 2A school in the country. Now they are both in Class 5A and it has become neighbor vs. neighbor.

Not quite brother vs. brother. Oh wait, that is happening with the Brotherton Bowl. Jason’s Haughton Buccaneers will travel to Parkway to meet little brother Coy’s team. The teams are a combined 5-1; there’s no telling what the Jason-vs.-Coy-in-the-backyard-as-kids record is.

Are too much made of these games, as Shreve’s Kirby has suggested? From the outside looking in, maybe so. But there is nothing wrong with having a little something extra to play for.

All games are not created equal and with the neutering of district games by the ever-changing LHSAA formats, having something that gets the blood boiling does make you want to make sure you leave those three hours open on your personal schedule.

You also have to learn to appreciate them while you can because a redistricting is always right around the corner. Coaches these days are always conscious of accumulating power points when constructing a schedule. They’d much rather try to improve their potential playoff chances than worry about trying to keep a rivalry game going in a non-district schedule.

The exception, of course, is BTW and Green Oaks. Even though the Lions are 4A and the Giants are 2A, they are going to play. (The rest of these are District 1-5A games, so it’s just a matter of where those dates fall in the district rotation.)

How important are these games? Probably just depends on whether you have the bigger number on the scoreboard when it’s over.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Airline coach Justin Scogin has a theory about the flow of the prep football season.

“When you start the season, you know you aren’t going to play your best football in Weeks 1 and 2,” Scogin said. “You just try to maintain until you can hit on both sides. Last week we finally played a full game on both sides of the ball.”

His team will be among the four playing tonight and his theory has seemed to apply to each.

The Vikings will take on Benton (1-2) at 7 o’clock at M.D. Ray Stadium and Tigers coach Reynolds Moore said before and after last week’s game against Newman that he is still looking for his team to put it all together.

At Independence Stadium, Captain Shreve (2-1) will take on Byrd and the Gators have been another perfect example – sluggish in the opening game, overwhelmed in the second game and then seemed to put it all together last week in a 34-20 win over Union Parish.

“At some point you’re going to have some adversity, and you have to handle it, you have to conquer it,” Shreve coach Adam Kirby said. “That’s a life lesson our kids are taking to heart and that makes me very proud of them.”

Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets (0-3) have been all over the place, with a slow start at Pleasant Grove in the opener, scoring 43 in the second game and still losing to Huntington before falling behind by two touchdowns before the offense even had the ball last week against Calvary.

The Vikings have been able to survive the early season ups-and-downs to maintain a perfect record through three games.

“We were able to play well in spurts on both sides of the ball in the first two games,” Scogin said. “But we weren’t really able to play a full game. Now, part of that was who we played. (North DeSoto and Union Parish) are two of the best teams in their class in the state.”

The Vikings have put 149 points on the board so far in three games, but they’ll be up against a Benton team that seemed to start figuring things out last week in a 37-27 loss to Newman. One of the things the Tigers have known for a long time is to get the ball in the hands of running back Greg Manning, who had 224 yards rushing and three touchdowns last week.

“I’m always scared when Number 1 (Manning) has the ball in his hands,” Scogin said. “And the quarterback (Jeff King) is good too, so they have some pieces. When they get it going, they are going to be tough to stop.”

As the District 1-5A season opens, the Vikings find themselves in a different position from a year ago, when they surprised everyone on the way to a perfect district record after a 0-3 start.

Scogin is aware that they won’t be sneaking up on anybody this year. “I think we learned to play like we were the hunted last year,” he said. “We talked about all off-season about how it’s going to be different and that teams would be coming after us. I think the kids have responded well and they are ready for everyone’s best shot.”

Shreve and Byrd are well accustomed to take each other’s best shot in this intense rivalry. It’s an important, high-profile game, to be sure, but Kirby thinks the matchup is important for different reasons.

“We’ve got to change our way of thinking over here on Kings Highway, that if we beat Byrd, it’s a successful season,” he said. “That’s not an attitude we need, where beating any one team is successful. I don’t mean to be negative. I don’t mean to be ugly. It’s a big ball game because it’s 1-5A.” 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

CAPTAIN SHREVE (2-1) vs. BYRD (0-3), Independence Stadium 

Series: Byrd 29-16 

Last year: Byrd 25-20 

Last week: Captain Shreve beat Union Parish 34-20; Byrd lost to Calvary 42-21  

Rankings: CS is No. 4 in SBJ Top 10 poll  

Power rankings: CS No. 13 in Select Div. I; Byrd No. 19 in Select Div. I 

Radio: CS (KLKL.FM, 95.7 FM); Byrd (The Tiger, 1130AM, 103.3 FM) 

Notable: Byrd has won 26 of the last 28 games in the series …. Malachi Johnson leads Byrd in rushing with 265 yards, averages eight yards per carry and has scored six touchdowns … The Jackets average 233.7 yards a game on the ground … Last week, Captain Shreve quarterback Brodie Savage made his first start in 2023 and his second in his two years at Shreve and tied his career high of 247 yards he passed for last year against Southwood …  both schools fell in previous weeks to Class 2A No. 1 Calvary.

BENTON (1-2) at AIRLINE (3-0), M.D. Ray Field at Airline Stadium 

Series: Airline 3-1 

Last year: Airline 75-59 

Last week: Airline beat Northwood 48-14; Benton lost to Newman 37-27 

Rankings: Airline is tied at No. 1 in SBJ Top 10 poll, received votes in LSWA 5A poll; Benton is No. 8 in SBJ poll 

Power rankings: Benton No. 24 in Non-Select Div. I; Airline No. 8 in Non-Select Div. I 

Radio: none 

Notable: Airline QB Ben Taylor has passed for 995 yards, good enough for second in the state’s stat leaders compiled by GeauxPreps.com … Jarvis Davis leads local receivers with 25 receptions and has 345 yards and two touchdowns … Benton has dropped two straight to ranked teams …. Tigers’ RB Greg Manning is second among local rushers with 433 yards on 78 carries and has scored seven touchdowns … QB Jeff King passed for 210 yards on 17-of-29 passes in last week’s loss to Newman.  

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Benton head coach Reynolds Moore talked during the week about how Thursday’s game against Newman was going to go a long way toward determining how the rest of the season was going to shape up for his Tigers.

After a 37-21 loss to the Greenies at Tiger Stadium, the results are in: Moore still doesn’t know.

“I think we found our identity on offense,” Moore said. “I thought we had a better second half, but still not what we want. We got to have 11 guys on both sides of the ball selling out.”

The offensive identity didn’t show until things were getting desperate for the Tigers – Newman led 23-0 midway through the second quarter – but after that, it was pretty impressive.

Running back Greg Manning rushed for 224 yards and three touchdowns while quarterback Jeff King threw for 211 yards and ran for 52 more.

“Between (numbers) 1 (Manning) and 6 (King), the team is going to go as they go,” Moore said. “When they make plays like they did tonight, the team rallies around that.”

Meanwhile, Newman was rallying around junior quarterback Eli Friend. He may not make Newman fans forget about Arch Manning, last year’s No. 1 national recruit, but Benton fans would sure like to forget about Friend.

He threw for 302 yards (completing 24 of 33) and ran for 97 more. He either threw or ran for all five Newman touchdowns.

“For good reason, you heard so much about Arch last year, but we really felt good about Eli this year,” Newman coach Nelson Stewart said. “This was probably his best night of throwing the football, plus his ability to extend plays with his legs.”

Friend led an impressive display in the first half, taking the Class 2A third-ranked Greenies down the field in seven plays on their first possession. Newman never had a third down on the drive and Friend, who completed passes of 24 and 17 yards, ran it in from 21 yards for the first score.

While the Tigers were trying to find their offense, Newman had another impressive drive going 65 yards in 10 plays. Benton had a chance to get off the field, but the Greenies came up with a 41-yard completion to Peter Loop. Friend scored seven plays later from a yard out.

A blocked punt resulted in a safety in the second quarter and Newman followed that with another touchdown as Friend found Anthony Jones open in the end zone for a 17-yard score.

“Their offense is as fast as you are going to see in Louisiana,” Stewart said of the Tigers. “We thought was really important to jump on them early.”

The Tigers ditched their normal offense and went to the Wildcat formation, snapping the ball directly to Manning. In the third play of the new offense formation, Manning looked to be  stopped on a run up the middle, but bounced out to the left and outraced the Greenie defenders for a 58-yard score to make it 23-7.

Though it seemed as though Newman was in control throughout, when the fourth quarter began Benton was within two scoring possessions of tying the game.

But the Tigers turned the ball over on downs on their first two possessions of the fourth quarter. They did get a late touchdown on a 10-yard pass from King to Jackson Jones, but only 16 seconds remained and Benton failed on the two-point conversion.

“I’m proud of our guys for fighting back,” Moore said.

“Once the game settled down, we had to get into a game management situation,” Stewart said. “Those kids (the Tigers) didn’t quit. This is a big for us and we knew it was going to be a fight for us to get out of here with a win.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

Newman 37, Benton 27

N             14           9              14           0              – 37

B             0              7              14           6             – 27

N – Eli Friend 21 run (Jacob Dusansky kick)

N – Friend 1 run (Dusansky kick)

N – Safety, punt blocked out of end zone

N – Anthony Jones 17 pass from Friend (Dusansky kick)

B – Greg Manning 58 run (Will Petro kick)

N – Friend 12 run (Dusansky kick)

B – Manning 36 run (Petro kick)

N – Peter Loop 10 pass from Friend (Dusansky kick)

B – Manning 5 run (Petro kick)

B – Jackson Jones 10 pass from Jeff King (pass failed)

RUSHING – Newman (32-166), Friend 15-97, Jake Randle 17-69. Benton (42-276), Manning 27-224, King 14-52.

PASSING – Newman (24-33-0-302-3), Friend 25-32-0-302. Benton (17-28-0-211-1), King 16-28-0-211-1.

RECEIVING – Newman, Peter Loop 6-98, Anthony Jones 6-91, Randle 4-30, Will Loerzel 4-58, George Loop 1-3, Collier Villere 1-12, DJ Thomas 1-14, Griffin Maxwell 1-minus-4. Benton, Jones 8-102, Kam Smith 3-46, Cody Wilhite 2-26, Manning 3-37, Wade Chandler 1-10.

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports  

Calvary head coach Rodney Guin is preparing his team following a week in which the Cavaliers won big.  

Benton head coach Reynolds Moore is preparing his team following a week in which the Tigers lost big.  

Same highway, different on-ramps.  

Both will be facing familiar opponents from a year ago and both will be hoping for a different result.  

Calvary, coming off a 61-27 win over Captain Shreve, hops back into the Class 5A pool when it takes on Byrd tonight at 7 p.m. at Independence Stadium. The Cavs lost a close one last year to the Yellow Jackets, 14-7.  

Benton had a rough night in Texarkana last week, losing 62-14 to Texas High, and will meet cross-state opponent Isadore Newman (New Orleans) Thursday in Benton. The Tigers made that trip in the opposite direction last year, only to have the Greenies take a 54-52 decision.  

Guin is not worried at all about his team still being in celebration mode. “We have a lot of seniors on this team and they know what we are up against with Byrd,” Guin said. “We enjoyed (the Shreve win) until Monday and then we got back to work. They know every week is going to be hard for us and they know the Byrd game is big.”  

“We went up against a really good team last week and kind of got it handed to us,” Moore said. “I think our guys have got to find our identity. We’ve made some changes and try some other guys in different spots to get the best 11 on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to figure out who we are and who we are going to be for the rest of the season.”  

The Cavaliers look like they have figured out who are with two impressive wins to open the season. But even though they are still in the midst of their non-district schedule, games such as this are no less important.  

“We do remind them how important these 5A games are in the power ratings for us if we win,” Guin said. “Games like this can be the difference for us being a 1 seed or a 5 seed (in the playoffs).”  

Though the Cavaliers have had no trouble scoring points, Guin in mindful of last year’s low-scoring game and how the Yellow Jackets like to control the flow of the game with their ball-control offense.  

“We are doing a lot of things right, especially on offense, but this is a different kind of a game against Byrd than it was against Shreve,” he said. “It’s a whole different dynamic to prepare for.”  

Moore won’t have to prepare for defending the nation’s No. 1 recruit like he did last year in Newman’s Arch Manning (now at the University of Texas), but he knows the Greenies are still potent on offense with junior quarterback Eli Friend, who is known for running as well as passing.  

“They call more runs for him than they did last year, but he is really accurate with his passing,” Moore said. “He’s a really good football player who can hurt you with his legs and his arm. Plus, they have been the most opportunistic team I have seen this year. Their secondary is incredible in making a play on the ball.” 

Moore said the scoreboard won’t necessarily tell the story of what this game means to the Tigers.  

“I don’t think this game is going to make or break our season,” Moore said. “But I do think that how we play will make or break our season.”  

Contact JJ at: johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com  

CALVARY BAPTIST (2-0) vs. BYRD (0-2), Independence Stadium  

Series: Byrd leads 8-2  

Last year: Byrd 14-7  

Last week: Byrd lost to Huntington 44-43; Calvary beat Captain Shreve 61-27  

Rankings: Calvary is No. 1 in LSWA 2A poll, No. 2 in SBJ; Byrd is No. 9 in SBJ poll  

Power rankings: Byrd No. 11 (Select, Div. I); Calvary No. 1 (Select, Div. III)  

Radio: Byrd (The Tiger, 1130 AM, 103.3 FM); CBA (Promise, 90.7 FM)  

Notable: Last year when they met Byrd was 2-0 and Calvary 1-1 … Calvary QB Abram Wardell is second among state leaders in passing yards with 680 … Cavalier receiver Aubrey Hermes is fourth in the state for receiving yards with 295 … Byrd’s run game generates 98 percent of its offense … Malachi Johnson led the Jackets with 211 yards and averages 9.6 yards per carry. He tied a school record in the loss to Huntington with five touchdowns.    

ISADORE NEWMAN (2-0) at BENTON (1-1), Newman Mason Field at Tiger Stadium  

Series: Newman 1-0  

Last year: Newman 54-52  

Last week: Benton lost to Texarkana-Texas High 62-14; Newman beat Riverside 33-7  

Rankings: Newman is No. 3 in LSWA 2A poll; Benton No. 7 in SBJ poll   

Power rankings: Benton No. 20 (Non-Select, Div. I); Newman No. 5 (Select Div. III)  

Radio: Benton (The Benton Tiger Sports Network, https://network1sports.com/station/benton)  

Notable: Benton’s two scores last week were the first touchdown passes for Jeff King on the season going to Cody Wilhite and Wade Chandler … Running back Greg Manning has 205 yards rushing on the season and 2,694 for his career … The Tiges defensive backfield has the top two tacklers on the team in Austin Cole with 25 and Miller Malley with 21. Linebacker Brayden Jackson has 19 tackles, two for a loss.  

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Years from now, Haughton coach Jason Brotherton will remember a decision he made in an otherwise-forgettable game against an otherwise-forgettable opponent in another part of the state.

And to be honest, he really doesn’t know why he made it. It just happened.

It might be too strong to say it changed Brotherton’s life or that it changed the life of one of his players.

“But in 30 years, I’m going to remember the day when Coleman Pratt kicked an extra point,” Brotherton says. “Because I know where he has had to overcome to get to where he is.”

Rest assured, Coleman Pratt isn’t going to forget it either. And neither will anybody else who saw it.

* * *

Brotherton has known Pratt’s parents from church, so it wasn’t a total surprise when Coleman came to see Brotherton during his freshman year. “His mom wanted him to be involved in something in high school,” Brotherton says. “So we got him out there kicking.”

By itself, that is not a very unusual story. Until you consider this: Coleman Pratt has a form of dwarfism.

It is a condition that affects about 1 in every 25,000 births and results in the limbs (arms and legs) and trunk which are not the same proportion as average-height individuals.

He could have been a manager or a statistician or videographer, but Pratt wanted to be on the team. His grandfather suggested that he try to be a holder on place kicks.

Nope. “I wanted to kick,” Pratt says.

Even so, kicking was going to be a challenge.

“It was probably three-quarters through his sophomore year before he could even get it high enough to get it over the cross bar,” Brotherton says. “But he shows up every day and he works. He’s gotten better and better every day.”

“One of my goals is to never give up,” Pratt says. “I know that people don’t see me as a kicker. I want to prove to them that I can be a kicker.”

It would be one thing if Pratt stood off to side and kicked during a few practices and just showed up for the game. Given his physical limitations, that would be completely understandable. But that’s not how Pratt goes about his job.

“He doesn’t skip out of any work,” Brotherton says. “He does all the running, all the off-season conditioning, all the stuff everyone on the team does.”

“Running in the off season has been tough,” Pratt says. “Even when they say to go 60 percent, I always go 100 percent so that I can keep up with other people.”

Once Pratt had improved enough, Brotherton figured it was time to step it up a notch. The Bucs end each practice with their kickers making an extra point. When he was a sophomore, Pratt was the third-string kicker, so it was time for him to perform in front of the entire team.

But there was one problem – Pratt refused to do it.

“About Week 7, I told him ‘I think you should give it a try because I think you can make it,’ but he still didn’t want to do it,” Brotherton says. “So the next week, I pretty much made him.”

Pratt didn’t make his end-of-practice kick on his first try. But when he did “you’d have thought we won the Super Bowl,” Brotherton says. “Kids were running all over the field just going crazy.”

“Some days I have bad days and some days I have really good days,” Pratt says. “Kicking is not all about how you kick. It’s also about how you think. If you believe in yourself, you can do it.”

You’d better hang on for this – football isn’t the only sport he plays at Haughton. He is also on the soccer and baseball teams. “This is a kid whose mom and dad probably didn’t think he could be involved in anything, “Brotherton says. “And now he plays more sports than almost any kid up here. And everybody loves him.”

As the Bucs were dominating LaGrange last week on the road in Lake Charles – on a field with impossibly high grass – Brotherton had a decision to make.

Only it really wasn’t much of a decision.

“We were ahead in the game and my man has worked hard to get to this point,” he says. “So we wanted to give him a chance.”

Pratt was more concerned about the thickness of the grass than being nervous and he missed his first attempt in the first half. But he got another shot in the second half and knocked it home.

“I loved it because it was my first varsity point,” Pratt says. “I was pretty excited and after the game I called my grandpa because he has been my biggest supporter. We talked about how he wishes he had been there.”

“There weren’t very many people there in the stands, so it didn’t get that much of a reaction,” Brotherton says. “But if that happens at home, you better look out.”

The kid who just wanted to be a part of a team in high school has done a lot more than just score a varsity point in high school football. He has topped that accomplishment by overcoming obstacles that few would have even attempted.

Coleman Pratt is not a curiosity. Coleman Pratt is a contributing member of the Haughton Bucs football team.

“Looking back on the film and seeing everybody cheering for me,” Pratt says. “That makes me …”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t have to.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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You see it every Saturday during college football season. There’s a big hit, the whistle blows, the crowd reacts and it’s time to move on to the next play.

Except that it isn’t time to move on to the next play.

Stop the game, because there might have been targeting involved. Or maybe targeting was called and there’s the need to go back and check and see if it really was targeting.

And so we all wait and watch. Slow it down on the replay and watch it again. Now watch it from another angle. Then another. Then talk to the retired ref in the TV booth who tells us what the call is going to be but often has all the accuracy of a weatherman.

Just for good measure, let’s watch it a few more times!

Must be nice, say local high school officials.

“If they (college officials) don’t get it right, there’s a problem,” says Daniel Robinson, now in his 23rd year as a football referee and 12th year as a head official. “Without the benefit of replay, mainly what we are looking for is intent. Any time we see a hit to the head, shoulder or neck area, our antennae have to go up.”

There are two levels of a penalty when it comes to hits like this. An illegal hit with the helmet can be a bit of a gray area and subject to a little more interpretation.

Keith Burton, who has been an official for 27 years and a head referee for 14, says it’s pretty easy to define targeting, but that may not be pleasing to the penalized team.

“With targeting,” Burton says, “you know it when you see it.”

Which was pretty much exactly what happened in the opening week of the season, when a North DeSoto defender was called – and ejected – for targeting against Airline in the first half. There seemed to be little doubt that the hit fit well within the definition of targeting. “That was textbook,” Burton said.

“But what you have to think about when you eject a kid is that it’s not like in college where they just bring in another star player,” Burton says. “You lose a stud player (to an ejection) in high school and it could really make a difference.”

The North DeSoto-Airline game was officiated by Burton’s crew and at halftime when the officials gathered, the official who made the initial call said it was the first time in 16 years he had ever made that call.

Both Burton and Robinson say they see it about once a year – Burton says he sees the lesser “illegal hit” penalty about four times a year – and according to Robinson, it does happen less and less every year.

But what if they had the benefit of replay? “I’d bet you’d see it a lot more,” Robinson said.

(There is video replay for semifinal and finals high school playoff games to review targeting as well as other plays.)

Adding to the pressure for high school officials to get it right the first time is that college referees really don’t have to.

“That’s what is so frustrating with what you see on TV (in college games),” Burton says. “They seem to have adopted this philosophy of ‘I’m not going make a courageous call and I’ll just let the review take care of it or make the call for me.’ “

For the fan in the stands, here what Burton says they should look for. “Is he defenseless?” he says. “Could be a runner being held up or a receiver coming down to the ground after a catch. But when you add in a factor like launching at the player, it’s pretty obvious.”

Is the player using their helmet as a weapon? Are they specifically looking to injure a defenseless player? Is it intentional? “That’s the judgment you have to make,” Burton says. “Those are the indicators.”

Burton will admit that targeting is called less in high school for a number of reasons. “High school officials have a bad habit of ball watching and miss plays whereas college officials watch zones and, because of their training, know those keys and what to look for,” he says. “And I think it comes down to high  school officials are just gun-shy about ejecting a kid.”

“An ejectable hit means you were trying to do nothing but trying to injure the other player,” Robinson says, “and you didn’t do anything to try to make a legitimate tackle.”

No matter how cut and dried it may seem, the reality is that high school officials aren’t playing in the same sandbox as the college officials when it comes to making a targeting call.

“In college, even when you have eight officials on the field, you still see them stop the game three or four times just to go back and check,” Robinson says. “We have a split second.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

In the 60-year history of Airline football, there may never have been a quarter of football quite like the third quarter of Friday night’s 53-42 win over North DeSoto at M.D. Ray Field.

And if you really want to get caught up in the hyperbole, it might also be tempting to say there may never have been a better pass play than the one from a running back to a sophomore.

You ready for this?

In the third quarter, Airline did the following:

• Scored five touchdowns.

• Came up with two interceptions (both by Jayden Gladney).

• Recovered its own kickoff 31 yards downfield.

• Had 12 first downs. (Let that one sink in for a moment).

• Gained 238 yards in total offense.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like that,” Airline coach Justin Scogin said.

Few have.

The Vikings looked like they might get run out of their own stadium in the first half as North DeSoto could do no wrong. Quarterback Luke Delafield was 13 of 18 for 187 yards, highlighted by an 80-yard drive that resulted in a wide-open touchdown pass to Tucker Brewster with four seconds remaining.

There was no reason to think it would be anything other than more than the same in the second half.

Until it wasn’t.

Delafield missed on his first seven passes of the second half (including two interceptions) and North DeSoto let a kickoff bounce freely at the 30-yard line before Airline’s D.J. Allen pounced on it. Suddenly, the Griffins couldn’t get out of their own way, nor could they get in the way of the Airline offense.

“We didn’t make any great adjustments,” Scogin said. “We just went in and challenged the kids to be mentally tough and come out in the second half and play hard. I would say they overexcelled in that.”

But as the onslaught by the Vikings continued, you just knew something special was about to happen. With 3:31 to go in the third quarter, it did.

On a third-and-10 from their own 29, Airline quarterback Ben Taylor threw a swing pass to running back Tre Jackson. It was clearly a backwards pass and the burly running back stopped in his tracks and threw a long pass downfield – a perfect spiral by a running back – to Kenny Darby.

The sophomore receiver reached out and stretched as far as he could to try to reach the pass and somehow made the catch – it looked like he caught the back end of the ball – then kept his feet, broke a tackle and made it into the end zone.

M.D. Ray Field was up for grabs after that play as the Vikings now had a 40-28 lead.

“The only thing better than the pass,” Scogin said, “was the catch.”

“I caught it with my fingertips,” Darby said. “I knew it would be open.”

“We practice it every day,” Jackson said. “And the first time we try it in the game and it was a bomb. I think it was a good catch.”

Yeah, you might say that.

Even after the gut punch by the Vikings, including the last two of three TD runs by Jarvis Davis, North DeSoto got back on its collective feet and got two touchdown passes from Delafield (he had five in the game) in the fourth quarter to close the gap to nine points with 5:12 to go.

But an end zone interception by Jeremiah Epps finally put the game away.

And quite a game it was, with 1,101 yards in total offense in the game, 14 touchdowns and all of one punt.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

ND                        7              21           0              14           –42       

Airline                   0              14           33           6              –53

ND – Landry Wyatt 33 pass from Luke Delafield (Dakota Denny kick)

ND – Trysten Hopper 13 run (Denny kick)

Air – Jarvis Davis 3 run (Preston Doerner kick)

ND – Cole Curry 49 pass from Delafield (Denny kick)

Air – Kenny Darby 23 pass from Ben Taylor (Doerner kick)

ND – Tucker Brewster 25 pass fron Delafield (Denny kick)

Air – Jackson 22 pass from Taylor (Doerner kick)

Air – Davis 2 run (Doerner kick)

Air – Bryson Broom 9 pass from Taylor (kick failed)

Air – Darby 71 pass from Jackson (pass failed)

Air – Davis 14 run (Max Tinkis kick)

Air – Broom 7 pass from Taylor (kick blocked)

ND – Eli Procell 53 pass from Delafield (Denny kick)

ND – Procell 24 pass from Delafield (Denny kick)

RUSHING – ND (43-234): Trysten Hopper 27-151, Kenny Thomas 13-77, Luke Delafield 3-6. Air (35-133) – Tre Jackson 16-55, Jarvis Davis 9-32, Bryson Broom 8-44, Ben Taylor 5-9, Bob Patterson 1-4, Eli Dollar 1-minus-2. 

PASSING – ND (24-38-3-361): Delafield 24-38-3-361. Air (31-44-0-373) – Taylor 30-43-0-302, Jackson 1-1-0-71.  

RECEIVING – ND, Cole Cory 8-135, Tucker Brewster 6-46, Landry Wyatt 5-74, Eli Procell 4-96, Chaz Martinez 1-10 Air – Kenny Darby 10-182, Davis 10-53, Broom 6-81, Jackson 4-51, Patterson 1-6.

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Combined, their teams were 1-19 a year ago. But that didn’t stop Bossier’s Gary Smith and Booker T. Washington’s Gary Cooper from taking on challenges that most coaches would run from.

Smith and Cooper look at it through a different lens than everyone else. All they see is 0-0. A clean slate. A fresh start.

You don’t just turn around a combined 1-19 by walking on the field and blowing the whistle. It takes some varying degrees of talent, luck and coaching.

But none of that matters without the most important ingredient of all — work.

If you don’t think that Smith and Cooper are excited about what lies ahead, you obviously haven’t been around them very much.

It’s not as if Bossier and BTW looked around and couldn’t find anybody else. Cooper and Smith embraced the chance to be a head coach.

Both were assistants at other schools – Cooper was at Huntington and Smith was defensive coordinator at Haughton – so they weren’t exactly next in line on the coaching ladder.

There are no shortcuts for these two programs (Bossier was 0-10 last year and BTW was 1-9 (the only win was against Bossier), so it all starts with the same thing.

“Hard work is what’s going to happen,” Cooper said. “The kids have been working their butts off and I couldn’t be more pleased with the work they’ve put in.”

“We got some kids who are going to work hard to get better,” Smith said. “But it’s going to be a process.”

Something else to understand: Taking over an 0-10 team was nothing to Smith, who was also a head coach at North DeSoto in 2005-06.  “I took over a team that had gone 1-29,” he said.

After seven years at Haughton as defensive coordinator, it wasn’t just the chance to be a head coach that brought Smith to his new job. It was a chance to be Bossier’s head coach.

“I’m a Bossier graduate,” said Smith, Class of 1990. “I just feel like I can go in there and make a difference and make it better.”

No one is making hotel reservations yet for the state finals, but the Bearkats did put up 33 points in the Jamboree last week against Plain Dealing. They’ll be at home against North Caddo Friday night in the season opener.

BTW is looking to solve two problems from last year – turnovers and more turnovers – but will have to start that mission with a rough road trip to Monroe to play Wossman.

“We’ve been on ball security all spring,” Cooper said. “We watched film on those turnovers and how they were caused. There are things we can do to fix those.”

Consistent quarterback play was also a problem for the Lions, but Cooper intends to hand the keys to sophomore Damion O’Neal. “He grew up a lot during the spring in understanding what we are trying to do offensively,” Cooper said. “He’s going to be our guy.”

Having four senior offensive linemen is certainly going to help.

But perhaps the first thing any coach in these situations has to overcome isn’t just X’s and O’s and cutting down on turnovers.

It’s the mentality of waiting for things to go wrong and being focused on negative things instead of positive ones.

“Write it down,” said Huntington coach Stephen Dennis. “He (Cooper) is going to transform that program.”

Something has to change. And Gary Cooper and Gary Smith are hoping they are just the guys to do it.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Finding a game-changing moment in a football game isn’t always the easiest thing to pinpoint. Sometimes there are subtleties that only a coach might notice that can turn the game around.

And then there are games like Captain Shreve’s 37-7 win over Loyola Thursday night at Independence Stadium.

You might not think a 30-point win would have a game-changing moment and in the end, it might not have mattered. But in the span of two plays in the second, the game went from being in doubt to being far less in doubt.

Both teams started slowly, but the Flyers were able to hang close thanks to a blocked field goal, a fumble recovery and an interception.

When freshman quarterback Bryce Restovich was inserted into the game in the second quarter, the Loyola offense began to show signs of life. Trailing 10-0 at half, the Flyers were going to get the ball to start the second half.

But on the first play, Gators’ safety Davy Donatelli perfectly read a pass over the middle and came up with an interception. Two plays later, Jamarlon Otis was in the end zone and it was 17-0.

“That was big,” said Shreve coach Adam Kirby. “I don’t want to say that the game got out of hand, but that was a big blow.”

“I felt like if we came out and scored to start then second half and make it 10-7, they might press,” said Loyola coach Mike Greene.

Instead, the Gators kept going with what they did best – giving the ball to Otis. Shreve had a school rushing record with 441 yards and Otis certainly did his part, picking 313 of them – also a school record.

“I thought Jamarlon made some things happen,” Kirby said. “He broke some tackles and the line did a good job.”

There were no tackles to break in the fourth quarter when Otis went for an 80-yard touchdown to cap off his night and give Shreve its final score of the night.

“Getting the win is nice, but I don’t like the way we came out flat,” Kirby said. “There wasn’t a lot of energy. I would have hoped in the first game that wouldn’t be the case. I’m happy we got the win but I’m not real pleased.”

After Shreve built a 24-0 lead, the Flyers certainly didn’t lay down. Restovich, who had never thrown a varsity pass before Thursday, found sophomore Jake Black, who had never caught a varsity pass, on a slant route and outraced the Shreve secondary to end zone for a 58-yard score.

In the fourth quarter, the Flyers had two deep penetrations into Shreve territory but both ended with end zone interceptions by Shreve’s E.J. McDonald.

Restovich threw for more yards in the game than any Flyer freshman has thrown for in a season, completing 14 of 22 for 192 yards, but did have three interceptions.

“He’s still young so he going to make mistakes, but you’ve got to give him some experience,” Greene said. “He’s an athlete and he can make plays. But it’s tough to get that experience against a really good (Class) 5A school like that.”

Shreve will take on another District 1-2A opponent next week – a veteran-laden one — when they face Calvary Thursday night at Independence Stadium. Loyola will travel to Logansport Friday night. 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

Captain Shreve 37, Loyola 7  

Score by quarters  

Loyola | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | — 7  

Captain Shreve | 8 | 2 | 20 | 7 | — 37   

Scoring summary  

CS – Jamarlon Otis 1 run (Keaton Flowers pass from Quortni Beaner)  

CS – Safety  

CS — Otis 16 run (Chance kick)  

CS – Beaner 3 run (Chance kick)  

LCP – Jake Black 58 pass from Bryce Restovich (Evan Lirette kick)  

CS – Beaner 7 run (kick failed)  

CS – Otis 80 run (Chance kick)   

RUSHING – CS (42-441): Otis 21-313, Beaner 9-94. Javen Thomas 7-47, Antonio Thornton 3-7, Brodie Savage 1-3, DJ Waldon 1-minus-1. LCP (33-107) – Reagan Coyle 13-42, Patrick Gosslee 8-26, Colby Hamilton 4-15; Jude Gaitan 1-8, Bryce Restovich 4-5, Rowan Guthikonda 1-5, Casey Wall 1-4, Black 1-2.   

PASSING – CS (6-11-0-22): Beaner 4-9-0-22; Savage 2-2-0-0. LCP – (15-29-3-225): Restovich 14-22-3-192; Colby Hamilton 1-7-0-33.  

RECEIVING – CS, Gage Haley 3-14, Flowers 1-6, JT Hester 1-6, Thomas 1-minus-6. LCP – Coyle 5-61, Black 3-81, Guthikonda 2-31, Jude Gaitan 2-30, Gosslee 1-13, Hamilton 1-11, Carter Doyal 1-7, 

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

You don’t have remind Huntington football coach Stephen Dennis that things have changed for the Raiders as the 2023 season approaches.

He is well aware that quarterback Kam Evans is now playing college football.

He is well aware that two of Evans’ top receivers have graduated and another transferred.

He is well aware that his leading rusher from a year ago is also playing college football.

But Dennis is the kind of guy who wants to talk about what he has, not what he doesn’t have. Yes, there will be some comparisons to 2022 early in this season, but he likes what this team has already done to establish its own identity.

“I think a lot of the fruits we have built are getting ready to blossom,” Dennis said. “I think this is one of the better groups I’ve had. The kids have really bought in and are doing everything that a coach could ask them to do. When you get that question answered, the execution and discipline and the things you need to build a winner take care of themselves.”

The Raiders will open the season Friday night against Mansfield at 7 p.m. at Independence Stadium. Huntington won last year’s season opener against the Wolverines 58-18.

Huntington’s season was basically broken into two parts – with and without Evans. With him, they were rolling along with a 5-2 record. But playing without him after he suffered an arm injury … not so much. The Raiders lost three of the last four, including a first-round playoff game.

But it did teach this year’s team about how to play without Evans, something Dennis feels like will be to the Raiders’ advantage this year.

“Our offense was built around Kam and his mental approach as well as his ability, so when you lose a guy like that you have to change gears,” he said.

And it will be Lorenzo “L.J.” White, Jr., changing the gears for the Huntington this year. Without saying it outright, Dennis said there is no reason to feel sorry for the Raiders as White takes over.

“He’s been in our program for two years,” Dennis said. “(White) is an extremely hard worker and comes from a great family. Kam was a pocket passer; LJ is more of a dual threat. I‘m really excited about him coming  in and putting his mark on it. He doesn’t need to be Kam; he needs to be LJ.”

White should get all the help he needs in making his mark. Dennis said he will rotate three running backs – all at least 6-0 and 210 – in addition to star receiver Caleb Tucker.

“He will be the big-guy receiver for us,” Dennis said.

When Evans got hurt last year, Jamarion Washington was one of those who filled in at quarterback. You might see him there this year as well as a Wildcat quarterback. Or at running back. Or kick returner. Or slot back.

“He’s our Swiss Army knife,” Dennis said. “He can do a little bit of everything.”

Derrick Edwards, a three-year starter at linebacker, leads a defense that is loaded with juniors.

Huntington will also play non-district games against Byrd and Neville before starting District 1-4A play.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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It’s about this time of year that high school football coaches begin fretting about their upcoming schedule. Is it too difficult? Is travel going to be a logistical problem?

But it’s not this year’s schedule they are worrying about these days. That’s been set in stone for two years.

It’s the 2024 (and 2025) schedule that has them, at least mildly, concerned.

They’ve already got plenty to worry about for this year as August workouts are now just days ahead. But the work has already begun in forming what the schedule will look like beyond this year.

And it’s not easy.

NFL schedules are year to year, but they are based on a formula. About 75 percent of the games are pre-determined with the remaining being filled in by the results of the previous season.

College football schedules are the other way. LSU has a date with Utah on Sept. 11, 2032. There’s a fourth-grader out there somewhere who will probably play in that game.

But high school football is Louisiana is done by two-year cycles (alternating between home and visitor in each of those years). However, the district schedules aren’t known until the re-classification takes place in January. Guess at your own risk on the size of your future district.

“It’s not fun, I can promise you,” said Haughton coach Jason Brotherton. “It’s quite stressful.”

And you definitely don’t want to be in a district with an odd number of teams; that means there will likely be a date to fill in the middle of the district season. That could mean a 200-mile trip to find another team with an open date that same weekend.

Or not.

That’s what Loyola did when a Week 5 opponent reneged on an agreement. Head coach Mike Greene looked around a little bit, but quickly found that the only teams that were available were either (1) too far away, (2) too many steps up the food chain for the Class 2A Flyers, or (3) both.

But because it came in the week before district play began, Greene used it as an opportunity to heal from a brutal non-district schedule. It worked as the Flyers won their next four games after the open date.

It can be even worse for schools who don’t know what classification they are going to be in. Take Northwood, for example. The Falcons could be in Class 4A (where they are now) or get bumped to Class 5A.

As a Class 4A school, head coach Austin Brown has received calls from two of the biggest Class 5A powers in Louisiana. “We are attractive to them because of the power points they would get from playing us,” Brown said. “But if we are 5A and might go 5-5? Not so much.”

The easiest game to fill is the first week and many schools use that to play a non-district, traditional rival. (Northwood has already filled that in the future with Benton.)

“It’s like anything else,” said Huntington coach Stephen Dennis. “You look at the size of a mountain and you think it’s too big to climb. But if you take it one step at a time, you realize you can do it. Everybody looks at it different. There are really several factors with lots of things to look at.”

Haughton coach Jason Brotherton is far less philosophical, but is driving down the same road.

“I go on the assumption that our district is going to be the same size,” he said. “It might not be, but that’s my starting point. Then I took at how many of those district games I think we will be favored in. If I think we can beat most of them, they I’ll play anybody (non-district). But if I think we are going to be middle of the pack, I’ve got to try to go find games I think we can win.”

And if you get stuck with an open date in Week 9? “You’re pretty limited in your options,” Brotherton said. “And if a lot of coaches are calling you, that must mean they don’t think you are very good and they think they can beat you.”

“You try not to be too late because you can get stuck,” Dennis said. “My thought process is to worry about Weeks 1 through 3. Typically you don’t have a district larger than eight teams. But I’m kinda of playing it both ways because I fully expect to be in 5A next year.”

The real scramble comes after the season when the district alignment begins to take shape. “If somebody is slow playing it and want to see what happens and if they can get a better deal, then I’ll go ahead and take the bird in the hand than wait on them,” Dennis said.

But if Northwood and Huntington both move up in 2024 and 2025, that would give the local 5A district 10 schools and would bring about two options: a nine-game district schedule or splitting the district into two 5-team districts.

“I’d rather have a five-team district, but we’d probably play the same people (in non-district),” Brotherton said “I think you could keep some of those games, but give you the liberty to play somebody else. If you are down, you want to be able to call around and find somebody you can be competitive against.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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