(Photo by Reggie McLeroy)
Staff report
All three Lincoln Parish gridiron teams earned postseason opportunities as Ruston High, Cedar Creek and Lincoln Prep will all participate in the upcoming state championship brackets in their respective divisions.
For the Ruston High Bearcats (8-2, 4-1 District 2-5A), Friday’s win over West Monroe secured both the district crown and a first round bye and the top seed in the playoffs, meaning the Bearcats will get to host every playoff match until the Superdome, should they make it.
“Obviously having a first round bye is certainly helpful,” Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said. ” That’s one thing I talked to the kids about — maybe the most important thing it is that we’ve accomplished (Friday) was being able to do that. We’ve just got some healing up that we need to do going into the second-round ball game.”
The Bearcats will await the winner of No. 16 Westgate and No. 17 Airline. Interestingly, the rest of District 2-5A’s qualifying teams ended up on the opposite side of the bracket from Ruston as Neville earned the No. 2 seed, West Monroe earned the No. 10 seed and Ouachita earned the No. 14 seed.
Cedar Creek (6-4, 4-2 District 1-1A) improved by five in the win-column this year and will return to the Select School Division IV playoffs after a one-year hiatus. The Cougars are the No. 19 seed and will travel Friday to play the No. 14 seed and former district rival St. Frederick (5-5, 3-1 District 2-1A).
The Warriors ended their regular season with a 32-29 loss to Delta Charter. After losing their first three games of the season to Lincoln Prep, Franklin Parish and Jena, St. Frederick won five of its last seven games.
“It’s exciting,” said Creek head coach Jacob Angevine. “When I took this job and laid out the foundation of what we wanted the program to be like, I asked the seniors for a goal. I wanted them to give me something they felt we could strive to achieve this year that would get people excited about Cougar football. Their goal was to play in Week 11, to get to the playoffs. We have achieved that goal and are excited about playing this Friday.”
Lincoln Prep (5-5, 4-3) stamped its ticket into the Non-Select School Division IV playoffs with a 51-28 win over Arcadia Friday night. The Panthers are the No. 24 seed and will travel to Eunice to face No. 9 seed St. Edmund on Friday night.
St. Edmund (8-2, 4-2 District 5-1A) won eight of its first nine games before falling 36-22 to Westminster Christian Friday night. The Blue Jays only other loss of the season came to Opelousas Catholic (52-30).
