By T. Scott Boatright
CADEVILLE — Good times, bad times. The Ruston High School football team saw some of both last night as the Bearcats hit the road to play at District 2-5A foe West Ouachita.
Fortunately for the Bearcats, there was much more good than bad playing in their favor as Ruston rolled past West Ouachita 48-6 at A.R. “Red” Sims Stadium.
Timing played a big role in the games and became a thread that ran throughout the contest that saw a running clock begin only 2:47 into the second half after Jordan Hayes’ 6-yard scoring scamper gave RHS a 42-point lead at 48-6 to end time stoppage from that point on.
And time was on the Bearcats’ side early on, as Ruston scored its opening touchdown only 3:25 in the contest.
By the time the 12 minutes of first-quarter play concluded, the Bearcats had roared out to a 27-0 advantage.
Ruston led 34-0 before having to punt for the first time with time winding down in the second quarter As the Chiefs took over on their own 33-yard line with 4:40 left in the first half, RHS Defensive Coordinator Kyle Williams yelled out to his defense to “don’t let up now” as West Ouachita broke the huddle heading to the of scrimmage.
After the Chiefs recorded their initial first down of the game on an eight-yard pass from Sam Ozark to Brayden Evans followed by an Ozark quarterback keeper to move the chains, the Bearcats called a timeout to try and refocus their defense in an attempt to maintain the shutout.
But West Ouachita continued its march downfield with Alex Reneau’s five-yard touchdown run finally put some points on the scoreboard for the Chiefs with 33 seconds in the first half to cut Ruston’s lead to 34-6.
After the game Williams admitted that timeout was called in hopes of helping the Bearcats’ earn their first shutout of the season,
“We wanted the shutout pretty bad,” Williams said. “But at the same time, we were trying to get some more guys — younger guys — in the game so that they could get some playing time and we let them go down there and score. So we’ve got to do better in that situation of making basic plays.”
The Chiefs attempted an onside kick after scoring their touchdown but it was recovered by the Bearcats. RHS starting quarterback Josh Brantley looked like he had taken his last snap and was wearing a coaching headset as the Ruston offense huddled up for the final possession of the first half..
But RHS coach Jerrod Baugh decided it was prime time to put Brantley back in for some added two-minute experience, and after taking off the headset and putting on his helmet, the junior quarterback took over on his own 38 and connected on a 40-yard pass to Jamar Woods to set up a 20-yard scoring strike to Joran Parker to put the Bearcats on top 41-6 at halftime.
“The original play was for his night to be over, but after we got the onsides kick that gave us good field position, we felt it was a good time to work on the two-minute drill,” Baugh said of Brantley returning for that drive. “That’s something we work on in practice and we don’t really have anything to simulate that. We had three timeouts and we just wanted to execute a two-minute drill and the kids came out and did a really good job with it.”
The Bearcats returned their starting defense (minus defensive lineman Peyton Bell, who injured a knee in the first half) to the field to start the second half in what Williams felt was a timely move.
“We did that after halftime to give them the feel of coming back out after halftime to give them more time and experience in coming out and trying to start off strong in the third quarter,” Williams said.
Ruston didn’t waste any time scoring in the second half as Hayes raced six yards to paydirt only 2:45 into the third quarter to account for the final score of the night.
After Ruston held the Chiefs to a three-and-out to force a punt on the ensuing WOHS possession, time again became a major factor in the game’s outcome.
As the Chiefs were trying to down the punt, a pair of Bearcats continued blocking Chiefs who were on the ground after being pancaked, with one of those RHS players being flagged.
But tempers started flaring as that penalty was called, with players from both teams getting into a shoving match as a plethora of flags rained down.
All that began with around 7:00 left in the third quarter, and by the time the referees got all the penalties and ejections figured out as the clock continued running, the stanza had already come to an end.
RHS coach Jerrod Baugh admitted he had never seen 7:00 disappear off the scoreboard that way even with a running clock.
”I’ve never seen anything like that,” Baugh said. “I don’t know how that rule works, that’s not really a rule I’ve read up on, but I did kind of wonder if they should have stopped it at some point. It may be at the discretion of the officials at that point. And maybe with that kind of situation that it was they decided it was best just to keep running that time off.”
As the clock continued winding down without stopping in a fast-moving fourth quarter, Baugh emptied his bench to give his young players some key playing time that could end up being crucial with only two regular-season games remaining before playoff action begins.
“That’s always a big deal,” Baugh said. “Anytime you can get those guys in — two young quarterbacks and some of the rest of them — to get that playing time, that experience, is invaluable moving on in the future.
“It’s been good the past two weeks that a lot of younger guys got playing time in that way.”
