Ruston won’t play its game on paper
Photo by Josh McDaniel
Ruston High junior quarterback Josh Brantley runs over an Alexandria Sr. High player during last week’s home victory.
No. 4 Ruston ( 6-0, 1-0 district) continues district play against the Pineville Rebels (2-4, 0-1 district) — a team historically unable to compete with the Bearcats — tonight at 7 p.m at Hoss Garrett Stadium.
Since joining Ruston in District 2-5A in 2011, the Rebels are 0-11 against the Bearcats and have been outscored 468- 77 in that span. Over the last two meetings, the Bearcats have outscored Pineville 103-0, including a 62-0 shutout win last season.
Looking at those numbers, it’s one-sided in favor of the Bearcats. But head coach Jerrod Baugh said past results won’t dictate tonight’s outcome. Games aren’t played on paper.
Even with his team sitting with a perfect overall record, Baugh knows it’s been less than perfect play to get to that point, an observation he believes shows the Bearcats are in no position to think they can sleepwalk through tonight’s game.
Whether it be slow starts — scoring 14 total points in the first quar-ter through six games — or late-game comebacks, Ruston hasn’t exactly punched teams in the mouth and kept striking.
Tonight seems like a prime opportunity to get it done, but Baugh said it comes down to being locked in from the kickoff, not letting Pineville’s record and historic standing with the Bearcats creep in.
“We’ve talked about just disregarding who our opponent is on Friday nights and all we want to do is take the opportunity to get better during the week,” Baugh said. “Anytime you have a ballgame, there are things you need to get correct and work on and that doesn’t change regardless of who you’re playing.
“Your mental preparation and focus should not deviate from what it needs to be based on who it is we’re playing. I think this week is another great opportunity for us to do that,” he continued. “And Pineville has not been as good as maybe some other teams but it’s a chance for us to stay focused on what we need to take care of and see if we’re able to do that.”
The last two wins — a 35-28 thriller with ASH and a 14-10 comeback over Neville — Ruston’s offense has found an effective weapon in the legs of Josh Brantley. The junior quarterback has scampered over opponents with 40 carries for 295 yards and 4 touchdowns over his last two games for an average of 147 yards a game.
The 6-foot-3, 212-pound quarterback has taken advantage of his frame to overwhelm smaller defenders and pick up extra yardage on designed runs, which Baugh said has caused Ruston’s offense to pick up its level of energy and explosiveness that was missing through the early weeks.
“I really thought what we were able to do against Neville and get him going like that would give him confidence, but also our offense confidence to see they can go down and score,” Baugh said. “I think you see the level of confidence growing with Josh and those around him and they’re putting more into and are putting some stuff together.
“You look at last week and we’re up 21- 0 at halftime and I think they might have gotten relaxed with how much we scored, and we had a chance to make a statement and score on the first drive of the second half and we go three and out,” he added. “So, hopefully what they took from that is no matter how well it seems to be going in one half, you gotta play with that same energy and mental focus for the rest of the game.”
Ruston hosts Pineville tonight at 7 p.m. In other games involving District 2-5A teams, West Monroe hosts West Ouachita and Alexandria Sr. High plays host to Ouachita.
