RHS primed for a bounce back

Out of the top five and in need of a bounce back, No. 6 Ruston hosts usual District 2-5A punching bag Pineville tonight for Homecoming with a chance to snap a twogame losing streak.

The Bearcats ( 6- 2, 1-2) have had their last three games decided by 10 combined points, including a 26-21 loss to Neville and a 40-36 loss to Alexandria over the last two weeks. RHS head coach Jerrod Baugh knows championship programs have to finish close games, especially the Bearcats if they want to go on another postseason run next month.

But starting the course back to success can begin with taking care of business tonight against a Pineville squad that’s rebelled against winning in 2-5A in recent years, particularly against Ruston. Pineville has not beaten Ruston this decade – outscored 418-77 in that span – and has not won a district game since Oct. 17, 2014, as well.

On paper, it looks like Ruston should return to form with ease. But Baugh won’t leave anything to chance at this point, not with the Bearcats holding a 2-2 mark in one-score games this year. If Ruston plays to its potential, tonight should be a walk in the park. Lack execution, and the Bearcats may have a problem on their hands. Oh, and don’t forget about the festivities of Homecom- Ai ing weekend as another wrinkle to block out.

“The thing I go back to is you look at us last year and we won a lot of one-possession games that could have gone either way. We lost only one of those to Warren Easton but then we were able to make the plays needed to win the other close games,” Baugh said. “This year, and really the last two games, we haven’t been able to make those plays late to win ball games and execute when we need something to happen. You work on those things throughout the year, and everything seemed fine because we were winning. But now, we’ve got to figure out a way to make those plays so we can finish with more points than the other team.”

Baugh just wants his team focused on the game and the game alone tonight – not what comes after or even the hype going in.

“ You hope you’ve talked about it enough to where they’re focused and ready to go,” Baugh said. “We’re going to have a lot of people coming into town for this game from different classes for Homecoming. They want to see a good football team. And we should want to come out wanting to get past what we’ve had to work through these past three weeks.

“ That should be enough motivation on our end,” Baugh continued. “We don’t need to worry about the dance or the parties. I want the kids to enjoy those things, but we have a game to worry about first.”

Ruston’s offense has scored 11 touchdowns and punted 12 times over its last 28 drives (three games) but may have finally gotten back to its identity of big runs after senior running back Jordan Hayes put up 143 rushing yards and 3 TDs last week against ASH – both season- highs for the 2023 All-State tailback.

Hayes now has over 680 yards and 8 TDs this season.

Opening the run game to set up the pass has worked for Ruston in the past and the Bearcats would certainly love to get sophomore tight end Ahmad Hudson more involved in the offense after 5 catches for 28 yards last week – sitting at one target going into the final drive of the game. Hudson had put up three straight games over 90 receiving yards prior to ASH.

Baugh knew coming into the year the offense’s bounty of weapons could sometimes lead to certain players not getting as many touches as others and is aware how valuable Hudson is to the Bearcats’ attack.

“We as a staff know how valuable Ahmad is at making plays,” Baugh said. “I think last week we as a team knew ASH had a really good offense, so we wanted to limit how much they would have the ball. The best way to do that is to run the ball and sustain drives and we were doing that for most of the game. We limited ASH’s possessions like we wanted and were getting good push up front to run.

“Sometimes Ahmad may not get a catch, but it doesn’t mean he wasn’t the go- to guy on a play. Sometimes it just doesn’t work how you want. We know we need to get him the ball and we also need to make sure we get it to Joran (Parker) and Dylone ( Brooks) and Jordan (Hayes). It’s a good problem to have,” Baugh added.

Ruston hosts Pineville (3-5, 0-3) tonight at 7 p.m. at Hoss Garrett Stadium.