Game of the Week - #8 Oak Grove (9-3) at #1 Kentwood (10-1). Two perennial playoff contenders and small school powers getting it on under the tank. Championship tradition just oozes out of the words Kentwood and Oak Grove football. I've actually been to a few of these games between these two teams and they were great games with tremendous high school football atmosphere.
Kentwood is the favorite having only lost to 2A defending champ Amite this season and rolling through pretty much everyone else. Oak Grove dropped a few to some other higher classification playoff teams. They have one common opponent, which is General Trass, the Roos playoff opponent last week. Kentwood beat them 53-8 while Oak Grove beat them with a nearly identical score of 51-8.
Weather permitting, I plan to be there. Looks like a good one.
Notes and Quotes
The Oak Forest Yellow Jackets, from neighboring Tangipahoa Parish, won the MSAIS 5A football championship last Friday. Congratulations to former Franklinton Demons player and assistant Cole Holden for being a part of that championship. Holden is the Yellow Jackets offensive line coach.
Ashton Duhe has been named the head football coach at East Jefferson after taking over as interim coach in week seven of the season when former coach Angel Cordona resigned.
Chris Blocker has stepped down as head football coach at Fontainebleau. He was head coach for eight seasons there with a 25-52 record.
Nick Saltaformaggio has been let go as head football coach at Holy Cross after three seasons there and a 7-20 record.
"Kids played extremely hard last night. Jena has a good football team. We will have to be on our A game for Berwick this week. Was not expecting an upset." ---- Amite head coach Zephaniah Powell
"Couldn't be more proud of our guys for finishing, made critical mistakes and kept overcoming. The game is played for 48 minutes, with time you still have a chance and we made the most of our chance. Our kicking game has struggled but when we needed him, Caleb Leblanc came thru big time and I couldn't be happier for him. An amazing, hard fought victory."--- Denham Springs head coach Brett Beard
Denham Springs was trailing 28-26 and their opponent, Benton had possession. Benton knelt on the ball twice, then on third down had the QB run around to run more time but they were called for holding. Another kneel down and the clock began rolling with the clock being in the neighborhood of 40 seconds remaining. Benton knelt again on fourth down at their own 13 yard line. Benton fans erupted and fireworks exploded. However, there was 0.6 seconds left on the clock.
Denham Springs sent out their field goal unit and won the game 29-28.
Last Week’s Action
Oak Forest 24 Simpson 14
Berwick 33 Bogalusa 30
Lakeshore 35 Opelousas 34
North Desoto 33 Cecilia 14
Amite 46 Jena 12
Southside 35 Northshore 14
Westgate 28 Slidell 7
Denham Springs 29 Benton 28
John F. Kennedy 30 Hannan 0
Avoyelles 52 St Helena 8
Kentwood 53 General Trass 8
Calvary Baptist 52 Northlake Christian 0
This Week’s Area Action
LHSAA Division I Non Select
1 Ruston at 9 Denham Springs
LHSAA Division II Non Select
6 Lutcher at 14 Lakeshore
LHSAA Division III Non Select
7 Amite at 18 Berwick
LHSAA Division IV Non Select
8 Oak Grove at 1 Kentwood
