On the third and final day of the Bayou Jamboree lineup, we had six teams go head-to-head with two of them being defending football champions for another end to this spectacular Bayou Jamb.
Game 1: D’Arbonne Woods Charter vs. Red River:
To start out the long exciting third day of football at the Bayou Jamb, the D’Arbonne Woods Timberwolves faced against the Red River Bulldogs in a close head-to-head matchup.
The Timberwolves, led by former Mangham head coach Tommy Tharp, are coming off a great season in which the program made the playoffs. Tharp, who is highly regarded as one of the best head coaches in North Louisiana, wants to prove on last year’s success. The team carried over last year’s performance into the first half against Red River as the Timberwolves took a 15-0 lead heading into halftime. The two touchdowns were scored on the ground by Wyatt Gilbert and Hayden Gray.
The Red River Bulldogs, which are led by Byron Keller, had a better second half and did get into the end zone as Jamello McDonald completed a touchdown pass to junior running back Montreveun Smith, who took a short completion and turned it into a big play.
Despite the big play from the Bulldogs, the Timberwolves were able to hold serve and finish with a 15-6 victory in the jamboree.
Even with a game this close there are still stars that deserve to be recognize with the player of the game award. For the Red River Bulldogs star junior running back Montreveun Smith won this award while senior quarterback Hayden Gray won the player of the game award for the Timberwolves.
D’Arbonne Woods Charter will start their regular season against Lakeview while Red River will kickoff their season on the road against Haughton.
Game 2: Jena Giants Vs. Ouachita Christian Eagles:
The second game in this trifecta was a matchup between the Jena Giants and the Ouachita Christian Eagles.
The Eagles, led by head coach Steven Fitzhugh, are coming off a Division IV State Championship last season and their 8th championship in school history. The program is trying to continue their dominance heading into this season. Even so, this game showed to be more of a wakeup call for them with Coach Fitzhugh stating after the game, “We have a lot of room for improvements.”
The Eagles did, however, come into this game hot, scoring on their first drive with a 43-yard pass from Luke Vidrine to Vanderbilt commit Tate Hamby to set up a three yard run by Vidrine for the touchdown. After this drive, Ouachita Christian’s luck ran out, with this being their only score of the game.
For the rest of the half, the defending champions were held by the Giants defense to under 100 yards (36 rushing and 49 passing). A huge piece that was lacking on the Eagles offense was their starting tailback, Zach White as he was sidelined this game with a minor foot injury, but Zach White being out did not stop Ouachita Christian from also having three turnovers during the game. The Eagles defense didn’t play much better.
The Giants, coached by Jay Roark, were running all over the OCS defense while putting up a huge rushing total of 231 yards. On the drive following the Ouachita Christian’s score, the Giants quickly moved the ball down field scoring, on a 63 yard run by Giants tailback Cameron Koch, with the two-point conversion scored on the ground by two-time district MVP Zerrick Jones.
This was not the only usage and explosiveness of Zerrick Jones for the day, who rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns on five carries. In the next drive, lasting only two plays, Jena’s offense had another 63-yard touchdown run, but this time, it was from the former two-time District MVP. The last score of the game was on third-and-10 with another huge run by Jones speeding past the Eagles defense on a 42-yard sprint to the endzone. The two-point conversion was successful with a pass from Zach Barker to Zadrien Cooper. Following this score the Giants finished their 22 unanswered points and making the final score of the game 22-7.
The players of the game were to no shock to anyone who watched. Zerrick Jones with his unbelievable monster game won player of the game for Jena, while Tate Hamby, making one of the longest plays for the Eagles to set up a touchdown, won player of the game for Ouachita Christian.
With the regular season starting next week, the two teams look to improve on their mistakes and build for a solid season that is ahead of them. Jena will be facing the Mangham Dragons at home on Friday and Ouachita Christian will be facing the Dallas Christian Chargers at home on Friday.
Game 3: Oak Grove Tigers vs. Many Tigers
The Bayou Jamb finale was a big matchup as it featured two defending state champions in Oak Grove and Many.
The defending Division III (Non-Select) state champion Many Tigers, led by new head coach Dillon Barrett, struck first as their star running back Jeremiah James gives them an early 7-0 lead, but from that point on, it was all Oak Grove.
The defending Division IV (Non-Select) state champion Oak Grove Tigers, led by head coach Ryan Gregory, got rolling when Quan Ruffin broke for two long touchdowns to give them a 13-7 lead.
Oak Grove broke the game open when the special teams unit blocked a 43-yard field goal and returned it all the way back for a 20-7 lead heading into the halftime break.
Oak Grove would dominate the second half of play outscoring Many 21-0 to give the Oak Grove Tigers a dominating 41-7 win in the Bayou Jamb.
Spencer Foster would win the Player of the Game for Oak Grove while James, who accounted for Many’s only touchdown, was their Player of the Game.
Oak Grove will kickoff the season against Opelousas Catholic while the Many Tigers will begin their season on the road against Sam Houston.
