By Kyle Roberts
MONROE, La. — It was crystal-clear Friday night that Ouachita had a plan: keep the ball away from Ruston’s high-powered offense.
It certainly worked in the first half, as the Lions allowed junior quarterback Montrel Connor, Jr., to use his legs to extend drives and keep the clock moving. The only problem? Penalty after penalty kept stalling Lion drives or making manageable down situations longer than needed.
And with the chance to go for two and win, Ouachita (3-2; 0-1 District 2-5A) had another penalty in the final seconds — a false start that backed the Lions up and outside the range of their freshman kicker. As the attempt sailed under the crossbar, the Bearcats (6-0; 1-0 District 2-5A) would hang on to win 22-21 in a hard fought battle.
“Ouachita had a really good game plan coming out of the ballgame,” Ruston High head coach Jerrod Baugh said. “They at up a bunch of clock when they had the football. I don’t think we matched their intensity and their competitiveness that played through the whole ballgame. And they probably deserved to win the ballgame, to be honest.”
Ruston did what it had to do to get an early lead after a 92-yard drive in the first quarter, capped off by a 55-yard touchdown toss from senior quarterback Josh Brantley to sophomore tight end Ahmad Hudson. After an offside penalty by the Lions’ special teams, the Bearcats gave senior tailback Jordan Hayes the ball to get the two-point conversion.
After only gaining 26 yards for the remainder of the first half, Ruston High led 8-0 at halftime before Lion junior running back Macario Dade took a swing pass 73 yards for a touchdown with 9:09 to play in the third quarter. Connor ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game 8-8.
“We’re not doing a very good job when we score on the first possession of backing that up and making positive things happen,” Baugh said. “I don’t know if the guys think it’s going to be easy if we score on the first possession, or what it is. But you know, a lot of that is due to Ouachita — they’re a good football team.”
Ruston put together back-to-back touchdown drives of 69 yards and then 46 yards– both capped off by runs by Brantley. His first came on fourth and inches, where he crossed the plane right before the football came loose. Ouachita fans believed Brantley had fumbled the football, but a touchdown was called, regardless, with 5:42 to play in the third to give Ruston a 15-7 lead. Senior wide receiver Peyton Martin helped set up that touchdown with a critical catch in traffic on 2nd-and-goal from the 19 yard line.
Brantley’s next touchdown came with 2:14 left in the third quarter, giving Ruston a 22-8 lead.
Ouachita found its way back into the ballgame after a Brantley interception to Ouachita’s Orlando Freemont early in the fourth quarter, leading to a two-yard touchdown run by Connor to cut Ruston’s lead to 22-15 with 7:35 left to play.
“We watched enough video to know that they’ve got skill guys out there that can take the football to the end zone at any point,” Baugh said. “And they have those big guys that are tough to block inside. We knew we were going to struggle with our run game — I need to do a better job of getting our guys ready to play.”
Ruston would be forced to punt again, giving Ouachita hope in the final minutes. A great pass from Connor to junior Wydell Clark with 0:39 left in the ball game over the middle led to Clark breaking away from defenders to get into the end zone to cut the Ruston lead to 22-21.
The Lions, however, would commit one of their 12 penalties on the night as they prepared to run in the two-point conversion and back their kicker up far enough away to miss the PAT.
Brantley threw 11-of-22 for 173 yards and a touchdown. Senior running back Dylone Brookes led Ruston’s rushers with 60 yards. Hudson added 103 yards receiving and a touchdown.
Connor finished with 168 yards passing and 114 yards rushing for Ouachita.
Despite the close contest, Baugh added that he was pleased that the team was still able to find a way to win the game.
“Our guys have found a lot of different ways to win,” Baugh said. “There’s a lot to say for that. And tonight was not different. We find a way to win. But we’ve got to get to where we can put together a full week of practice and get out here and be mentally ready to play a ballgame.”
Ruston returns to action Friday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. for the first time back in Hoss Garrett Stadium in over a month and will face off with the unbeaten Neville Tigers.
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