By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
It wouldn’t be high school football season in Louisiana without the looming threat of a hurricane at some point.
With Tropical Storm Francine gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico and setting her sights on the Louisiana coast, projected to strengthen into a hurricane and make landfall sometime this morning, the anticipated amounts of rainfall expected to fall throughout the state have put some football games in jeopardy.
Even though no games in Rapides Parish are under threat of being moved, and the majority of the rainfall is expected to clear by Thursday night, bringing sunshine on Friday, many fields could still be rain-logged by kickoff.
With rain in Rapides Parish each of the past two weeks, soggy fields Friday night should be nothing new for local teams.
Aaron York, whose Buckeye Panthers were 35-0 winners over Block last week, said his team will be prepared no matter the conditions when Grant comes to town.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen a wet field,” York said.
If the conditions Friday night call for the Panthers to keep the ball on the ground, they will continue to rely on senior Jim Burlew, who rushed for over 100 yards and scored three touchdowns against Block.
One of the parish’s top returning running backs, Burlew is being leaned on heavily to carry the load for the Panthers.
“He’s gonna get his touches in a ball game, but the good thing is, we do have other running backs we can put back there,” York said, specifically mentioning junior Ty Curtis, who had a rushing touchdown last week, and sophomore Cameron Burns. “… As much as we want to put the load on Jim, there’s other guys we can put back there.”
The big question mark entering the season was along the offensive line, and York said that unit answered the challenge last week and carried the Panthers to victory.
“I thought the O-Line, in the preseason we had some issues, but moving into that game I thought we pulled together,” York said.
“The O-Line did great the other night,” Burlew said. “I was proud of them. I was cheering them on every time we were on and off the field. I was telling them how good of a job they did.”
York said he would like to see his new starting quarterback, junior Kadin Grimmett, get the chance to showcase his abilities with a dry ball on a dry field, but that might have to wait yet another week.
“He’s a coach’s kid, so he’s got a competitive nature to him,” York said. “He is learning because this is the first time taking the reins at quarterback. Each week as he’s developed, he’s improved at making his reads.”
The Panthers boast a bevy of weapons at receiver, led by senior Haidyn Boone, but until the weather allows the Panthers to open up the offense, they’ll continue to rely on the ground game.
Alexandria Senior High and Holy Savior Menard each face challenging road tests as they look to improve to 2-0 on the season. The Trojans travel north to face Union, last season’s Division III Non-Select state champion, while the Eagles head east to local power Jena.
The Trojans, who got 178 rushing yards from senior JT Lindsey and four passing touchdowns from sophomore quarterbacks Karsen Sellers and Max Gassiott, will face a powerful Union rushing offense that is looking to avoid an 0-2 start after a loss at North DeSoto in Week 1.
Menard will look for more production from junior quarterback Jake Vaughn and junior running back Aidyn Moran, who combined for four of the Eagles’ five touchdowns in last week’s win over Northwood-Lena.
Jena, which advanced to the Division III Non-Select semifinals last season, is coming off a tough 26-22 home win over Mangham last week.
Pineville, Bolton and Northwood-Lena will be at home as they look to enter the win column for the first time.
Pineville will look for more production from its running back duo of Ayden Tate and Hy’keem Mix against Avoyelles, while Bolton will look to get into the end zone for the first time this season against Oberlin and Northwood-Lena will look to bounce back from its road loss at Menard when it hosts Elton.
Peabody and Tioga both hit the road for the second straight week as they look to even their records on the season.
Peabody, which lost by two points at LaGrange last week, travels to Shreveport to face the Northwood Falcons. Tioga, which suffered a 28-14 loss at Sterlington last week, will travel to Leesville to try to slow down senior Xavier Ford, who rushed for over 300 yards in a Week 1 loss to Sam Houston.