By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Expect an electric atmosphere tonight at “The Hoss.”
It’s Senior Night. It’s the regular season finale. Power points are at stake. One team may walk even away with the District 2-5A championship.
That’s all for the fans, of course. For the Ruston High Bearcats (7-2, 3-1 District 2-5A) and Head Coach Jerrod Baugh, every game is business as usual — including this one, as the Bearcats will host the West Monroe Rebels (7-2, 3-1 District 2-5A) at 7 p.m. tonight.
“We talk all season that each week we’re given an indication about where you are during the season,” Baugh said. “I can’t think of a better way than playing (West Monroe) for the last game of the year to see exactly where we are to end the seaosn and going into the playoffs. This is a great opportunity for that. Hopefully, our kids are looking forward to to doing that in front of a playoff type crowd and atmosphere against, obviously, a really good football team.”
Both teams enter with identical records for the overall season and for district play. West Monroe can win the district championship with a victory and an ASH win over Neville, while the Bearcats would also need Neville to beat ASH to go with their own victory for a championship.
And, of course, by this time Sunday, the Power Rankings will likely be solidified. Ruston controls its own destiny for playoff seeding and can earn its fourth consecutive first-round bye in the 2025 LHSAA Playoffs with a win (the ‘Cats are currently No. 1). West Monroe took a tumble after losing to Neville last week, but a win over Ruston would likely propel the Rebels back into the top four spots.
Recently, a big part of Ruston’s success in recent years has been Baugh’s ability to take the “mystique” out of the West Monroe game each and every year, considering the Rebels had beaten the Bearcats over 30 times before Ruston finally snapped the streak in 2022 (coincidentally, the last time West Monroe came to play in Ruston). The Bearcats are currently on a three-game winning streak over the Rebels, which includes a blowout 36-0 win in Rebel Stadium last year on Senior Night.
“When I first got here, I think everybody in the community looked forward to that one ball game,” Baugh said. “You take over as the head coach here, and you even have people tell you it doesn’t make any difference how many games you win this year, if you beat West Monroe, that’s the season, and it was really disappointing to hear, to be honest with you. That was, to me, just not understanding what it is you’re trying to do to get your football program going and to be successful. The reason that I feel like people looked at it that way is because West Monroe traditionally was the best team on our schedule every year and all of the years of losses that had stacked up.
“All of that’s hard to overcome all in one ball game. So to me progressively, adding a lot of really, really good football teams on our schedule I think took away from ‘Hey, everybody’s looking forward to the West Monroe game this year.’ I think there’s games on our schedule that people look forward to all throughout the year. It’s really taken the focus off of just one ball game.
Baugh expects West Monroe to rely on its power running game and a solid defense coming into tonight’s game.
“They’ve got a big running back behind a good looking offensive line,” Baugh said. “And they can really mash on you whenever they get ready and that. They hung their hat on back then whenever they were winning a bunch of ball games, and it seems to be what they hang their hat on now. And you add that to some talented receivers with a quarterback that operates their offense really well. I think whenever they’re clicking, they’re as good of a run pass team is what you’ll see.
“Defensively, I think you see a lot of what you saw back then too, is just a bunch of guys that get after it and play hard and you add those things together and that adds up to winning ball games.”
Sophomore running back Dalen Powell has been cleared to play and will be in the lineup for Ruston tonight after missing last week against Pineville.
“Probably right now we’re as healthy as we’ve been all season, which is good to know and good to be at this point,” Baugh said. “And so hopefully we can, we can stay that way throughout the ball game.”
Lastly, Baugh said that Ruston being at home will bring an advantage against a Rebel team that has loaded its schedule with eight home games this season. The only other time West Monroe has been on the road in 2025 has been against Pineville.
“I think anytime we can host a team here in front of a big crowd, I think that’s big,” Baugh said. “This is only their second game on the road this year. This group of guys really haven’t played many games on the road to be honest. This probably this would be one of the biggest venues andbiggest crowd that they’ve seen at an away ball game where most everybody isn’t cheering for them. So I think that’ll be something for those guys to overcome.
“As far as us on offense defense and special teams, you know, I think whenever we are consistent in all three phases, we are as good as anybody. I think that matchup wise, I think there’s areas in all three phases of the football where we stack up well. So hopefully we’ll be able to take advantage of those and be consistent with what it is we’re doing.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Q94.1FM and streamed on BearcatNationNetwork.com.
