Hayes' career night leads Ruston past Rebels

MONROE – District 2-5A still belongs to Ruston, and it’s thanks to a career-setting night from junior running back Jordan Hayes.

For the second straight season, the Bearcats not only knocked off their longtime rival West Monroe, but won the District 2-5A title, in a thrilling 35-28 victory at Rebel Stadium in Monroe on Friday. It’s the Bearcats first undefeated regular season since 1990 and first time winning on the road at West Monroe since 1989.

Hayes was at the center of it, rushing for a career-high 249 and 3 touchdowns – tearing the Rebels apart at 14.6 yards per carry.

With the Bearcats and Rebels knotted up at 28-28 with just under 4:30 to play, Hayes took a handoff to the outside, gaining leverage on the Rebels and sprinted to the end-zone for an 83-yard score to give his team the game-winning score at 35-28.

Hayes made a promise to offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger before the game that he would rush for 200 yards. He kept his word and then some.

“I feel like I knew it was going to be a tough game and I knew I had to come out here with the right mentality and mindset to get things done and we just executed and got things done and came out with a win,” Hayes said postgame. “I told him. I told him. Yes sir. I had to put the team on my back and I had to do what I had to do. The team believed in me and I’m just proud of our team.”

History was made across the field for the Bearcats but head coach Jerrod Baugh was just proud of his team’s resolve after West Monroe traded blow for blow with the Bearcats, at one point taking a 28-21 lead over Ruston.

“I don’t know where everybody got the idea it was going to be a blowout or any of that case,” Baugh said postgame. “They came out and they were ready to play and had a really good plan. I thought our coaches did a good job in all three phases and our kids just kept battling. Not that there’s didn’t but we just made the plays down the stretch and ended up with more points than they did.”

Baugh was happy with the victory but provided some levity postgame about what breaking decades-long curses means to the program.

“The thing is about that is I’m sure next year they’ll come up with some other streak that hasn’t been broken and hopefully we can have an opportunity to break all those,” Baugh said. Maybe it’s three days after you have a full moon we break that streak next year.”

The Bearcats got the scoring started with a 5-yard touchdown from Josh Brantley to Zhy Scott, only for the Rebels to match with a 18-yard score of their own early in the second quarter.

Hayes’ first explosion came on Ruston’s ensuing drive, sprinting up the middle for a 75-yard touchdown to give Ruston a 14-7 lead.

The two teams would go into the half tied at 14-14, with the Rebels’ passing game creating open plays to pick up first downs that kept Ruston’s offense from taking back a lead.

Out of the break, Hayes took a run 51 yards to the house on Ruston’s second drive of the third, giving the Bearcats a brief 21-14 lead. Like the rest of the evening, West Monroe punched back as Hayden Federico pitched an end-around to Grant Edmundson to tie the game at 21-21.

The Rebels’ home crowd burst into a frenzy after Federico went 50 yards for a score on the following WM drive, pulling ahead of Ruston 28-21 with 5:13 left in the third.

Brantley delivered when Ruston needed an answer, tossing a 23-yard touchdown to Logan Malone in the back of the end-zone, splitting two defenders on the pass to make it 28-28.

From there, the Bearcats took control in all phases, with Aidan Anding blocking the Rebels’ field goal attempt inside the 25-yard line with under two minutes in the third with Jacoriyan Crowe recovering.

After a pair of punts, Ruston’s offense took the field at its own 17-yard line with 4:22 left.

Hayes needed one play and took off for his 83-yard score.

“He was really excited about the opportunity to play those guys and make some big runs and we felt like they were going to commit a bunch of guys at the line of scrimmage and moved the front around and tried to mess our blocking schemes up but knew if he could get to the second level he’d have a chance to take some for a long ways off and felt good about that,” Baugh said. “It gets aggravating at times because it’d be one yard or minus one or two yards and then all of the sudden he’s breaking out of there.”

Beyond Hayes running wild, Brantley finished his night 9-17 passing for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns. Zheric Hill led the defense with 9 tackles, while Ronald Findley and Jadon Mayfield had 7 stops each.

Ruston will earn a first-round bye in the playoffs and will await the official playoffs pairings on Sunday morning.