Ruston earns bye, Creek gets No. 21 seed in playoff field

Two Lincoln Parish teams will each get their shot in the postseason as Ruston and Cedar Creek officially learned their respective playoff pairings from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Sunday morning.

Ruston will have a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the Division I non select playoffs for the second straight season, while Cedar Creek earned the No. 21 seed in the Division IV select playoffs.

The Bearcats (10-0) will host the winner of No. 16 Westgate vs No. 17 Terrebonne in the second round at Hoss Garrett Stadium.

Ruston had wins over No. 2 Neville, No. 8 West Monroe, No. 3 Lafayette Christian (Division II select), No. 13 Alexandria (Division I select), and No. 16 Jesuit (Division I select) in the regular season, capped off with a 35-28 win over West Monroe to secure the program’s first undefeated regular season since 1990.

"I think the bye comes at a good time for us to catch our breath and work on some situational things this next week," Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh said. "I'm very proud of our kids for putting themselves in this position. They have earned it."

Cedar Creek, who finished the regular season 4-5 overall, will travel to No. 12 Catholic Pointe Coupee (7-3) in the first round of the playoffs. If the Cougars were to win, they would face No. 5 Riverside Academy in the second round.

"Catholic P.C. is a good football team," Creek head coach William Parkerson said. "They play really hard on defense & rally to the football - mix up fronts between the 3/4 and the 3/3 stack. Offensively, they are primarily a spread team and will mix in some I-formation. Mix the run and pass but everything starts with getting their run game going."

Over in Jackson Parish, the Jonesboro-Hodge Tigers (4-6) made the Division IV non select playoffs as the No. 18 seed and will travel to No. 15 Ferriday (4-6) in the first round. With a win, the Tigers would face No. 2 Kentwood (8-2) in the second round.