By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Near perfection on all sides of the football led No. 1 Ruston (9-2) to a 51-13 victory Friday night over No. 16 Westgate by a final score of 51-13 at Hoss Garrett Stadium and will now host No. 8 Southside for a quarterfinal matchup next week.
Ruston’s formula for the win was efficient offense and clock management, and boy, did the Bearcats deliver with nearly 30 minutes in time of possession for the night and 302 yards of rushing.
“I’m really proud of our kids,” Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said. “We talked about it all week — we were going to need something out of all three phases of the ballgame. And we made some plays early in the first half, and Westgate just couldn’t recover. I mean, they’re a really good football team. I’m just really proud of our kids to have an opportunity to play on Thanksgiving week again.”
The wheels fell off for Westgate early after the Tigers misplayed the opening kickoff and allowed Bearcat sophomore Holt Hunt to recover the ball on the Tiger 22-yard line. Ruston would get some positive yardage but appeared to be stopped on fourth down before a flag was thrown for a personal foul to keep the Bearcat drive alive. Junior Kohl Gray made the Tigers pay shortly after with a nine-yard touchdown run to put Ruston up 7-0 with 9:35 to go in the first.
Westgate answered on the following drive with a long pass completion to set up a short touchdown run by senior Trandin Benjamin out of the wildcat formation just under a minute later.
Ruston was forced to punt on the next drive, and Westgate appeared to be moving the ball with efficiency again. Curiously, however, the Tigers punted on 4th-and-9 from Ruston’s 29-yard line. After the ball went into the end zone for a touchback, the Bearcats started an 80-yard drive and didn’t look back for the rest of the first half.
Senior quarterback Sam Hartwell took an option keeper 59 yards for a score with 1:18 to go in the first quarter for a 14-7 lead.
Ruston again would get the ball back and this time put together a methodical drive of nearly five minutes starting in the second quarter. Gray and Hartwell kept pounding the football and finally ended the 56-yard drive with a 5-yard option keeper by Hartwell to go up 21-7.
“I thought Sam did a really good job on the option run stuff we did,” Baugh said. “He pulled the ball a couple of times, got some big runs on midline and pitched when we needed to. I thought he did a really good job with that tonight. If we like our alignment when we put two tight ends in, we just kind of hang with it and milk it for what it’s worth. We knew offensively they had some big playmakers, and we didn’t need to get those guys back out there. And so our offensive coaches did a really good job of recognizing what we were being given early in the game and stuck with it and stayed with the plan.”
Westgate appeared to settle in again on offense and got the ball into Ruston territory. Sophomore quarterback Noah Antoine, however, threw an interception to junior safety Jayden Anding with 2:41 to go in the second quarter. On this drive, the Bearcats started getting junior tight end Ahmad Hudson more involved by completing a 24-yard pass, where Hudson broke multiple tackles to set Ruston up in great position to score. Hudson capped off the drive with a 6-yard touchdown reception off of a play-action by Hartwell with 0:47 to go in the half.
Westgate then tried to make magic happen before halftime, but again, Ruston made the Tigers pay and forced a punt with just over 10 seconds left. Junior Hunter Soto would block the Westgate punt and recover the ball in the end zone for a touchdown to put the Bearcats up 35-7 heading into the halftime locker room.
The Bearcats would receive the second half kickoff and put together a long drive of over six minutes to set senior kicker Joaquin Ramos up for a 38-yard field goal with 5:58 to go in the third quarter for a 38-7 lead. Westgate would then turn the ball over on downs, and Gray crossed into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night from four-yards out to cap off another scoring drive with 1:37 left in the third quarter for a 45-7 lead.
Senior running back Jeremiah Freeman scored, as well, for Ruston with 9:27 to go in the ballgame, setting up a running clock for the remainder of the night and giving Ruston a 51-7 lead. Westgate scored a late touchdown for the 51-13 final score.
Gray finished the night with 142 yards rushing and two scores, while Hartwell added 90 yards on the ground and 59 through the air for three total touchdowns. Hudson led the cats in receiving with 59 yards and one score.
Unofficially, Hunt was credited with five total tackles on the night.
Next week’s matchup with Southside is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Hoss Garrett Stadium.
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