By Kyle Roberts
LONGVIEW, Texas — Ruston High’s 2024 campaign nears its midway point, and the strength its non-district schedule will hit its high point Saturday as the Bearcats (4-0) take their unbeaten record once again to the state of Texas (and for the last time this year) to take on the Stephenville Yellowjackets (5-0) in a neutral site contest at Lobo Stadium on the campus of Longview High School.
Both teams come into the contest ranked No. 1 in their respective state-wide divisions — Ruston sits atop 5A in Louisiana while Stephenville is first in Texas’ 4A division.
With the Bearcats preparing for their last week of non-district play, Ruston High head coach Jerrod Baugh shared that while he is pleased with his team’s ability to win football games, he still wants to see more consistency from his squad in the day-to-day practices and drills.
“I think we’ve handled the schedule well,” Baugh said. “And I think we’ve handled the trips well. I don’t think it was ever an intention to have four (road) games in a row, but that’s just how it landed. You know, every year the team is different in what things they struggle with. This one to me is the consistency in practice habits — more segments within practice. Some are really good, and then not so good. That’s more for to figure out. But, obviously, we’re finding ways to win games — that’s a very important thing. That’s something that some teams struggle with. So I don’t want to make it sound negative, because we are finding ways to win, and we’re practicing well enough to be prepared to play well at times during ballgames.”
Ruston traveled to Choctaw Stadium last Saturday to take on Midland Legacy, a high school football program rich in tradition, in another neutral-site contest. The Bearcat defense dominated from the opening whistle as senior linebacker Zheric Hill led the way with 10 tackles, two sacks, and two interceptions — one that he returned for a touchdown. Ruston then cruised to a 38-6 win in Arlington.
Stephenville’s five wins have all been by double-digits, with its closest game coming last week against La Vega in a 38-28 victory. Baugh expects a Yellowjackets team that will be big on the interior and a balanced offensive attack that will be looking for any perceived weakness.
“I’m really impressed with how (Stephenville) gets after it up on the offensive and defensive lines,” Baugh said. “It may be a challenge to get pressure on their quarterback. When he stays on time, he’s really good. They’ve got good skill guys, and I think their coaches do a really good job of putting their guys that can make plays in position to do that.
“They scheme you up really well, defensively. If they have any weakness at all, I would say we might be able to throw the ball. But you can’t really tell, though, because they blitz a bunch and you never get to them. They have a really good coach and they scheme you up on things you don’t handle very well.”
Baugh believes Stephenville will provide a bit of a mirror for Ruston to assess where they are at as both schools have similar enrollment numbers and a history of winning state championships.
“They’ve had some really good coaches come through there,” Baugh said in conclusion. “Art Briles was there for a while and won some championships, and then Chad Morris was there and won titles, too. They have a long history just like Ruston and have won a lot of ballgames. They’re not going to be intimidated by coming to a neutral-site game — that will be nothing to them.”
For this game, Ruston will be the home team, meaning fans with season tickets packages already had their ticket in the GoFan app.
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on Q94.1 and BearcatNationNetwork.com. The Jerrod Baugh Coach’s Show will begin at 1:30 p.m.
