RUSTON, La. – A huge interception by junior Jayden Anding near the end of the game plus a huge receiving night for junior Ahmad Hudson was the formula for the Ruston High Bearcats (5-1) to get a homecoming win.
And lest we forget, a blocked punt by junior Keilan Davis followed by his own scoop-and-score in the first half — really, everything Ruston needed to have it got to its 21-14 win over Ouachita (5-1) to start district play.
Out last week against Stephenville, Hudson was nearly unguardable all night after making catch after catch in traffic to sustain Ruston drives.
“This ball game has turned into one possession as far as I remember,” Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said of the Ruston-Ouachita series. “It has really come down to the wire. Whenever we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity we had to go up by three scores, I knew it was going to come down to it. And our kids are to to be commended for doing what they needed to do in order to win the ball game.”
Following a Bearcat fumble on the first drive of the night, Ouachita had a good starting spot for their first drive of the night at Ruston’s 31-yard line just under 11 minutes to go in the first quarter. A stingy Bearcat defense and Lion penalties led to a turnover on downs, giving Ruston the ball deep in its own territory.
The Bearcats put together a good drive that included a long recption by junior tight end Ahmad Hudson for 46 yards in his return to the field after missing last week against Stephenville in Longview. The Bearcats, however, would not get points after a missed 42-yard field goal with 6:41 to go in the first quarter.
Shortly after, Davis had his special teams’ moment to get the first score of the night.
“In a ball game like this you know I told the kids all week it’s going to come down to some things like that,” Baugh said. “That touchdown was really kind of what we needed to get us to generate some momentum. We attempted an onside kick right after that. And those are the types of things in a ball game that you feel like is going to be very close that you try to maybe possibly pick up another one behind it to maybe spread the lead a little bit and give you a little bit catch your breath. But that didn’t work out. So we lined back up on defense, and it didn’t take them long to go back down the score. But you know, it was just a really good ball game against a really good football team.”
Ouachita would put together its own scoring drive after the Bearcats attempted an onside on the ensuing kickoff. Senior quarterback Montrel Connor, Jr., capped off the drive with a one-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7-7 toward the end of the first.
Both defenses would hold serve for most of the second quarter, and Ouachita would have a look at a 41-yard field goal, but the boal would clip off the left upright and miss, giving Ruston a chance on the next drive.
Hudson again showed dominance in traffic with some terrific grabs and even found the endzone with 2:29 to go in the first half to give Ruston a 14-7 lead going into the lockerroom. Hudson would eclipse 100 yards receiving in the first half, alone.
The Lions would miss another field goal in the third quarter at the 8:04 mark. Following a Bearcat drive of nearly five minutes, Ruston attempted to catch Ouachita napping on fourth down by quickly sending out the punt team and swapping it out for the offense on fourth down. The Lions’ defense, however, kept Ruston short of the first down marker with 3:26 to get the ball back.
Again, Ruston would get the ball back, and this time the Bearcats would put together a six-play, 79-yard touchdown drive capped off by a one-yard score by sophomore Dalen Powell with :50 to go in the third, which had been set up by a sweep run by junior wide receiver Josiah Morgan to put the ‘Cats in striking distance. After being held to just 12 yards in the first half, Powell put together a tremendous second half effort for over 90 yards in the last two quarters, and the Bearcats led 21-7 heading into the fourth.
“They’re very tough inside, and I knew it was going to be tough sledding particularly early on,” Baugh said of Ouachita’s run defense. “But we just have to keep on working at it, and hopefully, those guys will get tired. And I think we found some space in there whenever they got a little winded. They were they’re really good football team, just like I’ve talked about all week — win or lose throughout this district, whenever we get to the end of it, every team is going to be prepared for a playoff run.”
Ouachita would answer against with a long drive of its own to cut Ruston’s lead to 21-14 after Connor scored from 17 yards away with 9:11 left to go.
Inexplicably, the Lions burned two timeouts early in the second half, and Ruston was able to get the ball back to mostly run the clock out. Ouachita had one last chance with :18 left to play after forcing Ruston to turn the ball over on downs, but the ‘Cats held to pick up the win.
Ouachita senior Macario Dade led all rushers with 132 yards on 25 carries, while Hudson finished with 112 yards through the air on seven catches with a score.
“Anytime you have a player like that is really special, you always want those guys out there,” Baugh said of Hudson. “They can make the plays that you need to. And he went on a run there where he made several plays in a row whenever we needed it. But (Junior Tight End) Hunter Soto played a bunch on both sides of the ball, playing defensive end and tight end. We needed to be able to use the two tight end packages — it’s something that we really lean on a bunch and being able to throw him in there when he’s tired because he got a bunch of snaps on defense, too, — I think it’s just a lot of guys to be commended for doing whatever we needed them to do to win the football game.”
Hartwell threw for 141 yards on 10-of-18 passing.
The Bearcats will return to action on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. to take on the Neville Tigers who easily beat Pineville Friday on the road 56-6.
“It’s going to be a really good football team that we’re getting ready to play,” Baugh said of Neville. “So you can’t live to celebrate for very long before you turn the page and go back to work tomorrow. We’ll go back and look at this ball game. There’s still a bunch of areas that we need to improve on, and we’ve got to get some things straight from some mistakes we made tonight. I know our coaches will be digging into that, and hopefully we can get a lot of that stuff corrected going into next week. But they’re definitely a really good football team. We know that. And so it is no secret that whenever we drive over there, those guys are going to be ready to play, and we just need to be diligent about our work during the week and make sure we’re doing everything possible to put ourselves in the best position to win the ball game.”
