By Malcolm Butler
Ruston advanced to the Nonselect Division I semifinals with its 56-17 win over No. 9 seed Walker on Friday night. The Bearcats will host No. 21 seed Mandeville next Friday, a 56-50 winner over No. 4 seed Airline. Below are some notes from the Ruston vs. Walker contest.
Special Plays by Special Teams: The Bearcats were able to capitalize on some big special teams returns from both its punt return and kickoff return units. In a scoreless game late in the first quarter, senior Nate Johnson fielded a punt around the 40-yard line and returned it to the Walker seven yard line, setting up the Bearcats first score. Aidan Anding also had a big punt return and Jordan Hayes had an 80-yard kick return for a score in the fourth quarter.
“We got some big plays in the special teams,” said Baugh. “Some big punt returns (by Nate and Aidan). A kickoff return for a touchdown (by Jordan). We actually had our hands team out there on the kickoff and they decided to kick it deep. I thought we would probably get an onside kick at that point, but they chose not to do that. Jordan just can make big plays.”
Third Quarter Opening Drive: Leading 21-10 coming out of halftime, the Bearcats received the opening kickoff to start the third quarter and simply played smash mouth football. Ruston used 13 plays to drive 76 yards and took 4 minutes and 31 seconds off the clock. The Bearcats overcame a personal foul penalty called against Ahmad Hudson at the end of a run play that would have give Ruston a third down and goal from the Walker 2-yard line. Instead, it pushed Ruston back to the 17 yard line. Josh Brantley ran for 11 yards on a keeper off left guard on third down and then Jordan Hayes scored from six yards out on fourth down to make it 28-10 Bearcats. Ruston’s ability to overcome the nearly-costly penalty was big in the Bearcats extending their lead.
“I felt really comfortable with the things we had going offensively,” said Baugh. “We only had to punt it one time in the first half. The discussion at halftime with the offensive coaches was that we didn’t need to make anything up. Let’s get out there and do what we do. We sped up the tempo on that first drive (of the third quarter) and they struggled getting lined up at times. That was something we did talk about at halftime, pressing the tempo a little bit. I thought it worked.
“I felt good even after the penalty. It was third and long (goal to go from the 17). I decided to run it and get part of it. As I told Coach (Earl) Griffin, I liked the field position that we had down there. That even if we go for it on fourth down and don’t get it, they still have the entire field they have to drive. We were going to use two plays anyway. Our communication was good and I thought Coach Griffin did a good job with the two play calls.”
Penalty Problem: Maybe the only negative on the night was the fact Ruston was flagged nine times for 86 yards of penalties in the contest, including a couple of penalties that brought back big runs in the game. Dylone Brooks had a 50-plus yard run called back by a holding penalty and Josh Brantley had a 50-yard TD run called back by another holding penalty.
“A couple of them were ticky tack,” said Baugh. “One of them was on the punt return Aidan (Anding) had. We got called for pulling guys off of the pile. It wasn’t like a late hit. There is just some of that stuff that we have to clean up. Two or three of the holding calls that they called on wide receivers, I thought they were really aggressive blocks by our wide receivers.
“It’s not what you see in a lot of places, and I don’t think they are accustomed to seeing receivers out there being that physical with their blocks. I thought (our receivers) did a really good job. The thing we do have to earn is once the running back or whoever is carrying the football passes them, then they need to turn the block loose. I’m not trying to justify the penalties, but I thought it was really good seeing our receiver group out there blocking and springing some long runs.”
Defending Walker’s Offensive Style: Walker utilized a lot of misdirection on their run game during the contest, and Ruston’s defense held up. The Bearcats held Walker to just 107 yards on the ground on 41 carries, for less than a 3 yard per carry average. The longest run of the night by Walker was 12 yards. Walker capitalized on a couple of wheel routes on their first scoring drive and then capitalized on a reverse throw-back pass to the QB on its second TD drive of the game. The Bearcats defense also scored a TD on a 48-yard fumble return by Semaj Jones and set up a short field with another fumble recovery inside the Walker 10 late in the final quarter.
“You have to be real good with your eyes on what your keys are and what you are looking at,” said Baugh. “I think (Walker) knew they were mismatched up front some so they were going to have to do some different things like misdirection to try to get guys out of position to get some cheap yards. And they did that several times. But once we settled in on what it was that we needed to look at and got the routine for what it was that Walker was trying to do with the football, I thought we handled it really well.
“Their run game hasn’t been aligned like it was tonight. It was a little bit different. But the thing with that is if its something you haven’t done repeatedly during the year, you only have a handful of things to work with. Once we saw the grouping of plays they had put in with it, then we knew what they were working with. Our guys got accustom to what it was they were trying to do with the football and I thought our coaches did a good job making a few halftime adjustments. It worked well.”
Sky Kickoffs: With Walker boasting an extremely dangerous kickoff returner in Jaden Bardales, Jerrod Baugh decided the Bearcats were going to rely upon the pooch sky kickoff during the contest. Ruston consistently sent a high kickoff to around the 30 to 40 yard line forcing a different Walker kickoff return unit player to field it. Walker fair caught four of them and returned five for just an 11-yard average. Bardales had one kick return for 13 yards.
“(Bardales) is really fast,” said Baugh. “They put him in some on offense. He has run several kickoff returns back this year with opponents kicking the ball deep to him. To me it’s just crazy to give a kid like that who is special with the football in his hands a free opportunity to handle it with that much space. I know it looks bad sometime when you are giving up 10 or 15 yards of field position, but I would rather give up that field position with our defense then to give him several opportunities. If you think about it, we scored 56 points so you are kicking the ball off nine times. If you are kicking the ball where he has the opportunity to return it, odds are based on what we saw on video he has a great chance. I just didn’t want to put our kickoff coverage team in that type of bind.”
Semifinal Match-ups: In addition to Ruston’s semifinal match-up against Mandeville next week, the other semifinal will pit No. 6 seed Zachary against No. 7 seed Dutchdown. Zachary defeated No. 3 seed and defending state champion Destrehan 35-14 while Dutchtown defeated No. 18 seed Central 21-20.
