By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON — It came down to another exciting ending for the Ruston Bearcats for the second week in a row.
This time, the Bearcat defense held on for a 28-23 win over the Jesuit Blue Jays to get the first win of the 2022 season.
“I’m just proud that these guys kept playing, and it paid off at the end,” Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh said. “We need to find ways to win ballgames like that rather than being on the short end. I’m proud for all our kids to be able to do that. It wasn’t pretty. We’ve got a lot of things to continue to improve on, but at the end of the day, when you get into playoff games, you’re going to have to scramble around to try to find ways to win those games.”
Ruston used a healthy combination of a gutsy defensive effort with a second-half running attack to ultimately seal the win.
“I think we changed what our mind frame was,” Baugh said about the running game. “We felt like we could run the football on them some. Our kids just came out and competed. They realized that we have to be able to run the football to sustain some drives to be able to get our defense some breaks. I was proud for our guys. They came back to practice hard (after last week), and we did what we needed to do.”
Ruston opened the third quarter with a 74-yard touchdown run up the middle by senior fullback Lajaveon Ellis with 11:08 on the clock to take a 21-14 lead. Fields rushed in another touchdown inside the one-yard line to give Ruston a 28-14 lead with 11:08 left to go in the ballgame.
The Blue Jays cut it back to a one-score game on a 75-yard touchdown run on a fake punt play by senior punter Aiden Corbello. The PAT was no good, and Ruston led 28-20 with 8:19 left to play. Jesuit recovered the ensuing onside kick which led to a 43-yard Blue Jay field goal to cut the lead to 28-23 with 6:45 left to play.
After a Ruston three-and-out, the Bearcat defense held on the ensuing drive, forcing Jesuit into a turnover on downs.
Jesuit struck first with an 11-yard touchdown rush by Parker at the 9:56 mark in the first quarter on the Blue Jays’ opening drive of the night.
The Bearcats were able to answer in the second quarter with back-to-back touchdown; first with a 3-yard touchdown run by Osborne on a naked bootleg up the far side to tie the game at 7-7 with 10:52 to go before halftime. Ruston extended its first half lead to 14-7 after senior wide out Aaron Jackson hauled in a stellar 35-yard grab over his defender in the end zone with 6:36 in the second quarter.
“It’s back and forth on what you have to do,” Baugh said. “If you’re able to run the football, it gets one-on-one coverage for our guys out there. Aaron made a great play on that catch. When you’re able to do both, it keeps (opponents) off-balance.”
Jesuit tied the game after a 49-yard pass to Parker which set up a one-yard quarterback sneak by Perez. The teams entered the halftime locker room tied 14-14.
Ruston returns to action Friday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. back at home against Cabot High School out of Arkansas. The pregame show starts at 6:30 p.m. and will stream live on Z107.5 and BearcatNationNetwork.com.
