By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — It’s the final regular season home game for Ruston High (6-2, 1-2 District 2-5A) as the Pineville Rebels (3-5, 0-3 District 2-5A) come to town to meet a Bearcat team looking to get a win back up on the board after dropping a pair to two of the top teams in Louisiana.
After the second consecutive loss by less than a touchdown last week to the unbeaten ASH Trojans 40-36, Ruston High head coach Jerrod Baugh knows that the kids need to put the losses behind them and move on to the next game as quickly as possible, regardless of opponent.
“I think they turned the page pretty quickly,” Baugh said. “I think we’ll see when we hit the ballgame tonight. Hopefully, we’ve taken care of things this week.”
The 2024 schedule has been one for the books, no doubt. And after playing multiple games out-of-state, a couple of Saturday games, and then three extremely competitive district games, Baugh chose this week to give the kids a break from pads in practice to “help get their legs back up under them going into the homestretch.”
“I’ve been leaning towards that — I’m trying to get my mind wrapped around what I feel like this football team needs,” Baugh said. “The guys that are seniors — they’ve had some long seasons and some long weeks with Saturday games. So we changed practice up this week and didn’t have any padded-practices. I think it’s been good.”
Still No. 2 in the power rankings, Ruston High will be playing Pineville in its 2024 Homecoming Game, which comes with a week of festivities leading to game time. And with two games left on the schedule in the regular season, the Bearcats are very likely in control to earn a first-round by if they win out.
“The more tradition you have at a school, the bigger (Homecoming) is, which is a good thing,” Baugh said. “People in Ruston take pride in coming back when it’s their turn for Homecoming. I welcome all of that. But one thing I always tell our kids is that for people to come back, they want to see the kind of football they traditionally remember. It gives them an extended sense of pride if they come back and see high quality football, so we need to be a good representation of what I feel Ruston has represented for a very long time.”
After starting 3-2 on the year, Pineville has yet to win a District 2-5A game and has dropped three games in a row.
“(Head coach Bryant) Bell is still in the process of trying to build something there,” Baugh said. “In my opinion, it’s tough to get things going there because of open-enrollment (in Rapides Parish). I don’t know if I would be able to operate in a situation like that as much as I’m involved in our junior high over here. You just don’t know what you’re going to get, and it’s impossible to do any front-end work with your kids. So you get them as freshmen and don’t know which ones you’re getting, so you’re behind the eight-ball to start with.
“He’s working really hard to get things going. They had some success early — but then they ran through the toughest district in the state.”
For Baugh, a big part of tonight is making sure the Bearcats stay focused on the game at hand and not look forward to West Monroe next week or the playoffs afterward.
“If you’re not using a ballgame or a practice to get better, it’s a missed opportunity,” Baugh said. “To me, it’s up to our starting group to push out there, play really well, and see if they can give some other guys an opportunity to get into the ballgame. That’s a way to give back, because some of the starters now had their first experience getting into the game when those teams took care of business.
“At the end of the day, we need to win a ballgame — bottom line. And that’s the way we should treat it.”
Ruston and Pineville kick off at 7 p.m. tonight. The game will be streamed on BearcatNationNetwork.com and will be broadcast on Q94.1 FM.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:55 right to your inbox. Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
