By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON – It may not have been as crisp as Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh had wanted, but the Bearcats did more than enough right to get a 49-14 win over Pineville for the 2026 homecoming match and were able to get some meaningful minutes for some players who may not get varsity time each week.
Ruston scored on its first three possessions to lead 20-0 after the first quarter and led 35-0 at halftime at James Field at Hoss Garrett Stadium. The Bearcats improved to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in District 2-5A. Pineville fell to 1-8 and 1-3 in district play.
The result was never in question, but Baugh focused on what he did not like. Penalties topped the list: Ruston was flagged six times for 80 yards.
“I thought we were sloppy at times,” Baugh said. “I thought way too many penalties. Some of it, I think, may be happenstance. I’ll have to go back and watch the video on all of it, but my initial thought is way too many penalties tonight.”
Baugh also was not happy with the Bearcats’ kick coverage as the game went on.
“The first handful of kickoffs, the guys did a good job covering, and then we let them out a few times,” Baugh said. “Of course, we were rolling some guys in there, and they may not have been in the spot that they work in sometimes in practice, so it’s a little bit different for them. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to do a better job with that, particularly late in the game.”
The Bearcats’ offense, meanwhile, piled up 489 yards on 51 plays, averaging 9.6 yards a play. Ruston passed for 241 yards and rushed for 248.
Senior quarterback Sam Hartwell was efficient, completing 10 of 14 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns. Freshman quarterback Aulds Garvin finished six of 10 for 40 yards and two touchdowns. Junior backup Aidan Adams also saw some time for the Bearcats at quarterback in an offensive series.
Baugh said getting Garvin and other players snaps was part of the plan going in.
“You really like to be able to work that without it being necessary,” Baugh said. “We didn’t tell them that was what was going to happen, and so I thought they handled those situations pretty good.”
Ruston needed little time to get going. Senior running back Kohl Gray scored from 2 yards out to make it 7-0, and Hartwell hit senior wide receiver Josiah Morgan for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 14-0. Hartwell then found senior tight end Ahmad Hudson from 16 yards out for a 20-0 lead after the special teams could not get the point after attempt off after a bad snap.
In the second quarter, junior running back Dalen Powell turned a shovel pass from Hartwell into an 80-yard touchdown, breaking five tackles on the way to the end zone. Hartwell kept the ball for the two-point conversion to make it 28-0. Garvin then threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Keshun Malcolm for a 35-0 lead.
Gray added a 15-yard touchdown run in the third quarter for a 42-0 lead, which put the game in a running-clock situation. Garvin closed Ruston’s scoring in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver JP Moak.
Gray finished with 72 yards on eight carries, and Powell added 86 yards on 12 carries. Malcolm caught five passes for 42 yards, Morgan had four catches for 44 yards and Hudson had three for 59.
Baugh was less pleased with how the first-team offense handled its two-minute work before halftime.
“I thought we had two opportunities with the first group in there at the end of the first half to operate a two-minute offense in a situation that we really wanted to work, and we weren’t successful at that,” Baugh said. “In a situation like that, you’ve got to stay locked into what we’re trying to do. We were trying to work some situations in a live ball game that we needed to, and I was disappointed some in that.”
The Bearcats’ defense held Pineville to 233 yards, including 80 on the ground, and 4.5 yards a play. Junior defensive lineman Nicholas Hardison blocked a Pineville field goal attempt in the second quarter, and senior defensive back Jayden Anding recovered it at the Ruston 37-yard line.
Freshman defensive back Reed Williams led the tackle list with four stops, one for a loss.
Pineville got on the board in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Braylon Joshua. In the fourth quarter, junior quarterback Kaleb Coleman threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Davion Young.
The crowd was a highlight for Baugh, who said homecoming has become a tradition worth protecting.
“I’m very pleased with what it’s turned into,” Baugh said. “I think it’s a very good tradition for people to make plans to be back for homecoming and visit with each other. I can’t say it enough times that there’s not a lot of places that have the tradition that Ruston does, and it’s something that these current students and the current players need to enjoy and need to experience. I’m glad to have them back.”
Ruston now turns to its regular-season finale at West Monroe next Friday at 7 p.m. Baugh said the Bearcats must be sharper against the Rebels.
“It’s always a tough place to play,” Baugh said. “They seem to have patched things up. I don’t think they’ve given up a point in three ball games. We’ll need to have good preparation leading up to that, but for sure better than what I feel like some days we’ve had here recently.
“We need to have a good week and really need to play really well in Week 10 and have a good feeling going into the playoffs, wherever it is we land there.”
