Now that’s Bearcat football
Dyson Fields turned to the Ruston sideline and made a gesture, rather a promise, to Bearcats head coach Jerrod Baugh that wasn’t hard to discern.
Give him the ball, and he’ll pick up the fourth and 2 yards to go, even with the Bearcats pinned inside their own 8-yard line with less than a minute left against the Jesuit Bluejays.
Baugh went back and forth during the timeout before opting to punt the ball back to Jesuit with 50 seconds left, forcing the Blue Jays to drive 70 yards with no timeout in their pockets (if birds have those). Even with the decision to kick it away, Baugh saw in the moment his determined running back wanted his crack at sealing the win for the Bearcats.
“He wanted to go for it,” Baugh said of Fields. “He promised me he would get it and I understand that. It’s not that I doubted that, I just think the smart thing to do at that point with them out of timeouts was punt it down the other end.”
Fields wouldn’t get his chance on the fourth down decision but had his opportunities to shine Friday night in Ruston’s thrilling 28-23 win over Jesuit.
And after being ejected three carries into Ruston’s season opener a week ago, Fields knew he had to return for the Bearcats with purpose.
Boy, did he bring it.
“The fans came out here to see us win the game and that’s what we had to do and I was going to put my body on the line to win the game,” Fields said postgame.
He carried 33 times for 144 yards and a touchdown, returning to action for the Bearcats like he wanted. Fullback Lajaveon Ellis, Fields’ partner in the Ruston backfield, ended with 4 carries for 79. He opened the second half with a 74-yard touchdown run, going virtually untouched on his way to the endzone to give Ruston a 21-14 lead.
The Bearcats ran all over the Blue Jays to the tune of 293 rushing yards.
Jaden Osborne threw only five passes in the win but connected with Aaron Jackson on a 34-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.
On a night when emotions were running high after the Bearcats picked up their first win of the season, Fields was asked how good Ruston can be if run and passing offense clicks like Friday.
"Man, we statebound. We can win the championship,” Fields said. “If we got both of them going, I don’t see any team that can stop us.”
The commitment to the ground game was obviously a conscious one with the return of Fields, but Baugh said Ruston needed to switch its mindset when it came to rushing the ball. The season may just be getting started, but playoff runs begin with running the ball.
After rushing for 22 yards on 28 carries against Warren Easton a week ago, Ruston went to work – lots of work.
“Well, we took 101 snaps of inside (zone) on Wednesday and I think we changed what our mind frame was,” Baugh said. “They realized we got to be able to run the football to be able to sustain some drives, to be able to give our defense some breaks.”
Fields’ touchdown run put the Bearcats up 28-14 with 11:08 to play, but the Blue Jays kept chirping until the clock hit zeroes.
Jesuit looked ready to punt on its ensuing drive but caught Ruston off guard with a fake that went the distance for a touchdown by Aiden Corbello. On the kickoff, Jesuit attempted and recovered an onside kick. Two minutes later, Corbello connected on a 43-yard field goal to make it 2823 with six minutes left. But the Blue Jays would end their scoring right then and there.
After Baugh opted to punt to give the ball to Jesuit with less than a minute left, the Jays got to the Ruston 40 with 3.8 seconds left.
It all came down to a fourth and 10 for the ballgame, but Ruston defensive end Ahmad Breaux sacked Jesuit quarterback Beau Perez to seal the victory.
“We need to find ways to win a ballgame like that at the end. It wasn’t pretty. We got a lot of things we need to improve on, but at the end of the day, later on when you get into playoff games, you’re going to have to scramble around and try and find a way to win those games,” Baugh said.
Ruston will continue its homestand with a matchup against the Cabot Panthers next Friday at 7 p.m.
