Fourth quarter Cats win another one

It hasn’t been the dominant performances Ruston was accustomed to last season, but the wins count all the same.

The Bearcats ( 6-0, 1-0) held on and made the plays they needed to defeat ASH (3-3, 0-1) 35-28 on a thrilling finish at Hoss Garrett Stadium in the District 2-5A opener for both.

With ASH scoring 21 unanswered points out of halftime to tie the ballgame at 21- 21 entering the fourth, Ruston’s top playmakers came ready to finish the job with big stops from Jadon Mayfield and Geordan Guidry, while Josh Brantley and Dylone Brooks ran hard to deliver the deciding touchdown with just over a minute left.

Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh said the Bearcats looked like the team they needed to be coming out of the gates up 21-0 at halftime, with Brantley rushing for two scores and Brooks for a 9- yard touchdown but knew ASH’s offense had too much creativity to be denied for long.

“We knew it was going to be a tough ballgame and they’re a very good football team,” Baugh said. “You can look at their record and they’re 3-2 coming in but they lost two really good football teams. Jumped out to a lead and played kind of relaxed but we knew they were going to make some plays and got a couple onside kicks which gave them a shot in the arm and our defense stayed out there a bunch of snaps and got gassed. And that was the point because they knew they needed to get some momentum and they got it. But at the end of the day, our guys did enough to win the ballgame.”

The Bearcats seemed to regain control after Jordan Hayes punched in a 6-yard touchdown to go up 28-21 with just over 10 minutes left, but the Trojans marched from their own 20 and tied the game back up on a wideopen 18-yard touchdown from Ty Feaster to Tanner Townsend.

Ruston seemed to be sliding backwards again and punted on its following drive, even after Hayes returned the kickoff to midfield. But the Bearcats’ key playmakers rose to the occasion.

As Feaster dropped back to pass on the next play on his own 27 with 4:45 left and a chance to drive ASH down for the lead, Aidan Anding jumped in front of his man and intercepted the pass less than 10 seconds after the Trojans took over.

From there, Ruston closed the ballgame out with a ground-andpound scoring drive capped off with a 3-yard touchdown from Brooks with 1:16 left.

ASH tried one last rally with 1:15 to go, needing to drive 76 yards to tie the game, but Guidry had other ideas. On 4th and 15 at the ASH 35, the senior defensive end and Tulane commit crashed through the middle of the offensive line and sacked Feaster for a big loss to end the ballgame and hand Ruston its sixth win of the year.

What was going through the mind of Guidry, having already watched ASH drive down the field four times in the second half ?

“Take them out of the game,” Guidry said. “Make sure they didn’t come back.”

Guidry ended the game with 4 tackles and 2 sacks.

ASH utilized a heavy screen attack on offense to keep Guidry and others at bay for most of the evening, a strategy Baugh said never got the Bearcats pass rush out of the fight.

“We needed those guys to play well up front and I liked our matchup defensive line wise against their offensive line,” Baugh said. “They do a really good job of using a bunch of screens to try and slow our guys down and help their line out. I thought our guys continued to hustle after the quarterback.”

Ruston came out of the gates in the first quarter with an onside kick to start the game and recovered it, setting up an early touchdown drive capped off with an 11-yard score from Brantley. Brantley completed two fourth down passes to keep the drive alive.

He’d finish his night with 23 carries for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns – his second straight game with over 140 rushing yards. In the passing game, Brantley ended 7-of-17 for 129 yards and 2 interceptions.

Less than three plays after Brantley’s early score, Jacoriyan Crowe gave the ball right back to the offense after picking off Feaster. Ruston couldn’t capitalize from the takeaway as Brantley was picked off as Ruston threw the ball at the 3-yard line, with his attempt tipped and caught by an ASH defender in the endzone less than three minutes after the takeaway.

Ruston’s defense forced a three and out after the turnover, eventually going up 14- 0 thanks to a 10-yard score from Brooks with 11:34 left in the second quarter. Both squads punted from there, only for ASH to threaten down to the Ruston two yard line.

But even then, Ruston’s top dogs came to play as Nate Johnson and Mayfield stood tall on third down for a combined tackle for no gain. And on fourth down, Crowe came up big once again with a pass breakup on fourth and goal to keep ASH scoreless.

Ruston’s final score of the half came as Brantley carried defenders 4 yards into the endzone for a 21-0 lead with 16 seconds left.

Brooks finished with 8 carries for 69 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Hayes ended with 13 carries for 22 yards and a score.

Lander Smith caught 1 pass for 33 yards, while Zhy Scott and Logan Malone each finished with 40 yards receiving.

On defense, Anding finished with 2 interceptions and four tackles. Zheric Hill and Mayfield combined for 17 tackles and 2 TFL.

“I thought we came out really focused on what we needed to do but those guys made plays,” Baugh said. “I may take that back that we relaxed. I think they made a lot of plays coming out of the second half and our guys just had to dig in and we made the plays later on in the fourth quarter that we needed to make. Last week, I think our offense gained some confidence that last drive we made [against Neville] and I think that showed tonight.”

Ruston returns home Friday to host Pineville (2-4, 0-1) at Hoss Garrett Stadium.