Journal Staff
Minden’s Crimson Tide ran into an offensive and defensive buzzsaw Friday night, dropping a 42-8 opening round playoff contest to the West Feliciana Saints in St. Francisville.
Senior running backs Joel Rogers and Elstron Longs had a hand in all six Saints touchdowns on the night. Longs scored on a pair of one-yard runs while Rogers had TD runs of one, three and 17 yards and hauled in a Thomas Temple 40-yard pass for his fourth tally. The pair combined for 134 of the Saints’ 206 total rushing yards, while Temple completed 11 of 13 passes for 116 yards.
Minden managed just 121 total yards against the stout Saints’ defense and only crossed the midfield stripe once until the four-minute mark in the fourth quarter. That’s when the Tide’s junior running back Dunovan Robinson broke a scoreless playoff game drought that had begun in 2020.
After the defense forced West Feliciana’s first punt with 4:18 remaining in the game, the Tide offense set up at its 20. Robinson took a pitchout from quarterback Hudson Brown, swung around the left side and outran Saints defenders 80 yards to paydirt. The scamper pushed Robinson’s rushing total to 132 yards on 15 carries as he ended the season with a third consecutive 100 yard-plus effort.
Minden ends its season at 3-8, while the Saints improve to 9-2 and head into the second round of the playoffs.
