By Kyle Roberts
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Strange things happen in Alexandria on Friday nights in the fall, and this game’s ending was no different.
As senior wide receiver KeShun Malcolm hauled in a 20 yard catch, he fell to the turf with 4 seconds left on the clock for first down and 10. The Bearcats ran to the line to spike the football but they quickly discovered that the clock was already running and it was triple zeroes.
The ASH Trojans (7-1, 3-0 District 2-5A) held on to win 27-21 after an exciting fourth quarter over the Ruston Bearcats (6-2, 2-1 District 2-5A) and took control of the district crown with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh didn’t hide his frustration over how it ended, but he also didn’t put it all on the officials.
“I don’t know how it takes four seconds to spike the ball. I don’t know how to judge all of that. They’re supposed to be keeping the clock on the field as well, and for that to be the way that it ended,” Baugh said. “But we shouldn’t have been in a position where we leave it up to an official to salvage one more play. We shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with.”
The loss also jeopardizes Ruston getting a first-round bye in the playoffs for what would be the fifth straight season. In the current LHSAA playoff format, the top four seeds in Non-Select Division I get a first round bye.
The Bearcats came out swinging. Their first drive stalled with a missed field goal after a 36-yard wheel route on the first play from scrimmage to junior Dalen Powell, but the second drive was a different story. Ruston marched 95 yards in 11 plays, finishing the drive when senior quarterback Sam Hartwell pulled a play-fake and scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 1:45 to go in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.
Then ASH found its own footing.
The Trojans cashed in on fourth-and-goal early in the second, when Karsen Sellers punched in a 2-yard run to tie it 7-7 with 11:18 to go in the half. Kason Williams followed with a touchdown run with 3:20 left for a 14-7 ASH lead.
Ruston, however, answered right before the break. Powell returned a kickoff 50 yards, and he finished the job with a 2-yard touchdown run with 0:32 to play in the second quarter to make it 14-14 at halftime.
ASH took the lead for good in the third on a Eli Fung field goal with 9:40 left, making it 17-14. The Bearcats’ defense then did its part and held the Trojans to a turnover on downs with 6:38 left to play.
Baugh said the Bearcats let too many chances slip away.
“We wasted a lot of opportunities to move the ball and get into the end zone,” Baugh said. “When you’re playing a football team like that and get all those stops inside the red zone, then you have to move the football out of these or at least change field position. You can’t ask our defense to play any better than the way they played. You have to take advantage.”
The Bearcats’ defense kept making stands. ASH turned the ball over on downs two separate times after interceptions by Jaytun Terry at 6:32 and Ja’Kyrin Griffin at 3:02 of the third, and Ruston’s defense held on a fourth-and-inches from the goal line at 4:33. Still, ASH’s Noble Williams scored on a 1-yard run with 0:58 left in the quarter to make it 24-14.
Fung added a field goal with 8:28 to go in the fourth for a 27-14 lead.
Ruston refused to go away. Powell broke loose on an 81-yard run, and Hartwell found junior tight end Ahmad Hudson for a 4-yard touchdown with 4:41 left to cut it to 27-21.
Baugh said the offense simply didn’t deliver when it counted.
“We did a horrible job executing offensively when we needed something to happen,” Baugh said. “And I’m not taking anything away from ASH; they’re a really good football team. We’ll go back and watch the film and see thing after thing and see mistakes that we made, and we’ll need to do a better job of that when we play good football teams. I feel like we lost against the best two football teams we’ve played, and at the end of the day, that’s the games that you need to win. We haven’t found a way to win them.”
Then came the finish. ASH was flagged for holding on a third-and-12 with 1:05 left, and Ruston eventually got to the final chance before precious time slipped away at the end.
Powell led the Bearcats with 160 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Hartwell ran six times for 47 yards and a score and completed 8 of 17 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. Hudson caught five passes for 67 yards and a score, and Powell added two catches for 40 yards. Kadyn Gray led the defense with eight tackles, followed by Aidan Adams and Jayden Anding with six apiece.
Baugh credited Hudson, who made several amazing catches on the night with some in traffic to extend critical drives.
“They pressed our receivers, but it wasn’t anything different from what we’ve seen,” Baugh said. “(Hudson) made some big plays, and if he doesn’t make some of those one-handed catches, then we’re in kind of a bind. We depend on him to make some of those plays because we know he can. We just have to have better production out of everyone else.”
Baugh said the Bearcats’ bye history has been a good thing, even if this season’s odds of earning one in the first round have shrunk after suffering a second loss in the regular season.
“It’s been really good to us to be able to get that bye,” Baugh said. “Odds are, it’s not going to happen (this year). But you don’t have to win every ballgame to win a state championship. We’ll have to regroup and be ready to go. Hopefully, by Week 10, we’ll be back to playing as good of football as we had been earlier in the year.”
Ruston will host Pineville Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. in Hoss Garrett Stadium for homecoming.
