By Kyle Roberts
Two straight years; two Superdome trips.
In fact, as incredible as Ruston High School football has been for nearly a century, this is the first time in the history of the program that the Bearcats have made it to the Superdome in consecutive seasons.
And now, just making it isn’t enough for a team whose mantra all season long has been “Unfinished Business.”
They’re going down hungry for the championship. And only one team stands in their way: the sixth-seeded Zachary High Broncos, who has never tasted defeat in the Caesar’s Superdome.
“As a coach, you always try to find some holes in what what they have going on,” Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh said. “We look to see if they’ve got a weak player on offense or defense that you can really aim at. And they just don’t have that, and they execute. They were in the Superdome two years ago and won it. So they’ve got kids on their team that have been through that experience. You know, we talk about our kids’ experience (last season). (Zachary has) been through it and won that game.”
Ruston’s defense held off a hot Mandeville team last week at “The Hoss” 28-7, holding the Skipper offense to just one touchdown after averaging nearly 50 points per game in the postseason.
The Broncos, on the other hand, trailed 28-13 with less than two minutes to go in the third quarter last Friday night to No. 7 Dutchtown. Following a weather delay due to severe storms, the game was postponed until the following afternoon. The Broncos would complete the comeback and win 31-28 in overtime to advance to the state championship.
The Bearcats ended Zachary’s season last year in Ruston 37-22.
Ruston ended the 2023 regular season officially undefeated after getting a forfeit win over Warren Easton in week one. Since then, the Bearcats finished their first unbeaten season since 1990, when they last won the Louisiana High School state championship.
Baugh spoke to the fact that both teams have Superdome experience and what that will mean for Saturday.
“Their experience is going to be a lot like ours going into the game is that, you know, they’ll be comfortable,” Baugh said. “I think they’ll play well.”
Both teams come in with their defenses as their respective identities. Baugh talked about observing how the trenches will be won on both sides of the football as an indicator of how the outcome will go.
“Their offensive line versus our defensive line is going to be really something to watch early on to see how they handle that,” Baugh said. “If we’re able to keep two guys over the top of (wide receiver Trey’Dez Green) and can handle some of the deep balls that they that they throw, that’ll be an issue for Zachary. But they’re really good in the defensive line. So our match up offensive line versus their defensive line is going to be something, something to pay attention to and it’s going just be how those matchups turn out.”
Bronco senior Trey’Dez Green stands 6-foot, 7 inches tall and has primarily played as a wide receiver for the Broncos and was at East Feliciana High School previously. He’ll be going up against a Bearcat defense that has picked off quarterbacks 15 times through the course of the season.
“That really motivates them, which they don’t need a whole lot of extra motivation,” Baugh said of the Bearcat defense approach to opposing star players. “They get out and they play hard and play well and play for each other. But that was the sort of thing with the quarterback at Lafayette Christian; he’s throwing the ball and he’s setting all these records and throwing a bunch of touchdowns early in the year going into our game and our guys go in there and pick the ball off five times and run two back. And any time that’s been the situation, they always take it to heart and they’re competitors. They want to compete.”
Zachary’s offense will also use an unconventional two-quarterback system to try to three Ruston’s defensive gameplan off balance. Senior Hudson Spangler will primarily look to throw the football Green’s way, while junior Caleb Gonzalez would likely look to run the football.
Ruston and Zachary are scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. The audio of game can be heard for free on Z107.5FM or streamed for free at https://www.redpeachlive.com/z1075/. The NHFS Network will have a neutral video feed of the game for $11.99 fee.
