MONROE, La. — Despite trailing 10-0 to Neville at the 2025 Bayou Jamb, the Ruston Bearcats rallied for a 13-10 win in the exhibition to start off the brand new season with some excitement.
“This one wasn’t looking good to start with,” Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said. “We weren’t executing and we weren’t playing hard. And that was adding up to us getting beat. I challenged them at halftime to really get out there and play harder. And we played harder in the second half — and whenever you do that, you give yourself an opportunity to get in the game and win. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’ll start that (Saturday).”
Ruston started the game with the ball on their own 30-yard line after a 28-yard kick off return by sophomore Dalen Powell. The Bearcats would start with a three-and-out and be forced to punt.
Neville quickly responded with a 63-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a 25-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Parker Robinson to senior wide receiver Zeland Young for a 7-0 lead with 7:28 to play in the first half.
After a Bearcat fumble on the ensuing drive, Neville was held to a 27-yard field goal by sophomore Rivers Sorrell to go up 10-0.
Penalties would mar the third drive of the night, forcing Ruston in a long down-and-distance before having to punt again, despite a long rush attempt by junior quarterback Sam Hartwell to try to salvage the drive.
The Tigers would struggle with some penalties on their following drive and were forced into their first three-and-out of the night. Ruston would then finally get a first down with less than one minute to play in the half on a jailbreak screen to Powell to get to the 50-yard line. Junior Josiah Morgan would score two plays later from 50-yards out with a beautiful catch in traffic with 0:35 to go in the half. Junior Joaquin Ramos tacked on the PAT to cut the Tiger lead to 10-7.
The Bearcats would force Neville to punt on their opening possession of the second half after holding the Tigers to three-and-out. Following a drive that took nearly five minutes off the clock, Ruston would face a fourth-and-three on the Nevill 27-yard line. Unable to complete the pass, the ‘Cats turned the ball over on downs to set Neville up on their side of the field.
Neville would have to punt again, and this time junior Davis DeMoss showed an electric punt return for 44 yards to put Ruston on the Tiger 20-yard line. Hartwell would give Ruston its game-winning score at 13-10 with 2:06 remaining on a bootleg scramble from 16 yards out — Neville blocked the ensuing PAT.
“Sam has got some experience from these last two years, but it’s a different deal when you’re ‘the guy,'” Baugh said. “I thought he handled the pressure pretty well.”
The Bearcats would then force a fumble and recover to take over with just over a minute remaining and would run out the clock.
Sophomore Aidan Adams also showed promise at the linebacker spot after unofficially amassing seven tackles in the two 12-minute halves.
“He’s really athletic and he’s got a big body,” Baugh said. “He’s got long arms and he can extend to stay away from guys. And we need that. He needs to come along pretty quickly, especially with Acadiana next week — they’ll be running straight at him.”
Hartwell finished the night with both a passing and rushing touchdown and threw for 84 yards.
Junior tight-end Ahmad Hudson did not play for the Bearcats Friday.
Ruston will kick off the regular season Friday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. down in south Louisiana against Acadiana. The game will be broadcast live on the Bearcat Nation Network and on Q94.1FM.
