Bearcats survive quite the scare

MONROE – Ruston’s defense delivered when it mattered most on a rare night of offensive struggles in the Bearcats’ District 2- 5A opener against Ouachita, taking a 22-21 win Friday on the road.

Leading 22- 8 with just over two minutes left in the third, Ruston looked well on its way to a sloppy, but enjoyable, victory to move to 6-0.

But the Lions gave everything they had and had a chance to upset the Bearcats, taking advantage of Ruston’s down night on offense and inability to contain quarterback Montrell Conner on the ground.

“Ouachita did a very good job. They were ready to play. Their kids played very hard,” Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh said. “Probably deserved to win the football game to be honest. I think they outplayed us in a lot of aspects of the ball game. For whatever the reason is, we weren’t matching their intensity and their want-to to win the ball game. And I feel like that showed up.”

Ruston’s big lead in the second half came thanks to a 1- yard touchdown from Josh Brantley, and then a 14-yard Brantley scamper to go up 22-8 with 2:14 left in the third on a quarterback option run. It was a welcomed sign after just one touchdown in the first half – a 55-yard strike to Ahmad Hudson.

For as poor of a start to the night as Ruston had, the Bearcats were the verge of delivering the final blow, getting inside Ouachita’s 28. But Brantley was picked off soon after and the Lions’ Orlando Freemont returned the takeaway to the Ruston 40. Nine plays later, the Lions cut the deficit to 22-15 on a Conner touchdown with 7: 35 to go.

Ruston went on to punt on its next possession, giving Ouachita the ball back with 3:28 left – 80 yards away from tying the game.

The Lions answered the call, using Conner’s legs to pick up multiple first downs and get downfield quickly. Ouachita sent its home crowd into a frenzy after a 34-yard touchdown pass to Wydell Clark with 39 seconds left to cut the game to 22-21.

The Lions wanted to go for the win, lining up to attempt a two-point conversion. But Ouachita was not set when the ball was snapped and moved back five yards on the false start, forcing the Lions to settle for the tie. Or so they thought.

Ouachita’s freshman kicker Miguel Mondragon had his kicked tipped at the line by Ruston senior Payton Bell, dribbling the kick short of the uprights.

Ballgame Ruston. “Probably deserved to get our a-- beat is probably what it should have amounted to. I guess I need to do a better job of getting us ready to play,” Baugh said. “Ouachita played a really good football game. I think they had a really good game plan; ate up a bunch of clock and limited our chances to get the football. We didn’t do much with it when we had it in the first half.”

Ruston’s defense held strong in crucial moments, despite being on the field for as long as they were. Ruston ran just 18 plays in the first half and had trouble running the ball to chew clock throughout the night.

The defense held Ouachita to five punts, three touchdowns – two in the fourth quarter – and got off the field on a missed field goal in the first half, along with the final PAT block that sealed the win.

Baugh was pleased Ruston found a way to win but hopes it serves as a wakeup call going forward.

“ Ouachita is the kind of team you let them hang around and they’ve got some guys that can get the ball and score at anytime. That’s scary at the end of the game when they’ve got the football. Luckily, they ran out of time on the twopoint conversion and they were backed up,” Baugh said. “Probably changed gears on what they had in mind for the play call. Hats off to Ouachita. I thought they played really well and really hard.”

No. 1 Ruston ( 6- 0, 1-0) hosts No. 5 Neville (6-0, 1-0) next week at Hoss Garrett Stadium as the Bearcats return home for the first time in a month. The Bearcats also extended the state’s longest winning streak to 20 games.

In other games involving District 2- 5A Friday night, Alexandria clipped West Monroe 45-35 at ASH, while Neville pulled away from Pineville 50-10.