Tom Dodge
The Blue Jays travel for their final road trip of the regular season as St, Edmund visits Grand Lake Friday.
St. Edmund (6-1, 4-0) is trying to repeat as District 4-1A champions for the first time since 2003-2004 and a win over the Hornets keeps the Jays atop the standings.
“We are gettting better each week,” Blue Jay head coach Andy Hargroder said. “But we still haven’t played our best game.”
In the 35-6 win over Oberlin last week, Hargroder said he was pleased with the overall execution.
“On defense we bent a little more than we usually do as they scored once,” the coach said. “That is a credit to what Oherlin was doing.”
Grand Lake opened the season with losses to Vinton (34-7) and Gueydan (40-18) before a 31-8 win over Highland Baptist.
The Hornets are still winless in district after losses to Elton (42-16), Oberlin (22-3), Merryville (41-8) and Hamilton Christian (18-16).
Grand Lake is a running team, according to the Blue Jay coach.
“They are much like they were last year,” the coach said of the Hornets. “They want to do what we do, push the ball down the field.
“They gave us problems last year early.” Hargroder said of the 29-7 win. “But we were able to wear them down as we control the line of scrimmage.”
In other district games this week, Basile travels to Oberlin while Merryville visits Hamilton Christian.
South Cameron was scheduled to face Elton this week, but the Tarpons were forced to forfeit their second game in a three week period due to the lack of healthy players.
The Tarpons also forfeited the Basile game scheduled for Oct. 4.
According to the LHSAA rule book “the forfeit of two or more scheduled games shall be considered discontinuing the sport.
“When a school discontinues varsity football, its scheduled games shall be null and void.”
South Cameron will now aim to play at the junior varsity level for the next two seasons and when eligible, bring back the varsity program.