By Shawn White
Three local Webster Parish teams headed to face some Claiborne Parish competition in Haynesville at the Pineland jamboree. The three teams couldn’t get a win over Homer and Haynesville, but North Webster and Minden both pulled out ties against the Class A state champion Haynesville Golden Tornado.
Homer Pelican exited the jamboree with both their wins over Lakeside and North Webster. Minden escaped the jamboree with a win and a tie. Haynesville finished the night with two ties. North Webster ended the jamboree with a loss and tie. Lakeside exited Haynesville with two losses.
Each jamboree was a shortened matchup playing only one 15 minute period.
Homer 16, Lakeside 0
The Pelicans took over midfield with about nine minutes remaining. Homer marched down to the red zone and finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by Xaiden Casey. The next possession Lakeside suffered a fumble where the Pels recovered on the Lakeside 32. Next play, Kevin Williams connected with Jerzyion Levingston on the 32-yard touchdown pass. Homer was up 16-0 in an instant.
Lakeside reached the red zone in the closing minutes, but the time and Pelican’s defense was against them. As the Warriors, gave it up on downs as time expired.
Minden 19, Lakeside 0
Minden took advantage of a botched punt and took their first possession deep in the Warrior territory. Lucas Owens Jr. punched in the first Crimson Tide touchdown to get the 7-0 lead.
Lakeside got a big run by Eric Jones reaching the red zone. The Warriors were unable to capitalize as Minden’s Abreon Curry snagged an interception in the end zone.
Minden marched to Lakeside territory but the Warrior defense forced Kaiden King out of the pocket and Caleb Barber grabbed the interception.
The Warriors didn’t have possession long as Minden’s Braylan Ferrell took an interception to Lakeside 28. The Tide got a scare as Jardon Carey caught the screen pass only to fumble but recovered in the red zone. Owens took control and scored his second touchdown as he blasted a 17-yard touchdown run up the middle to give Minden the 13-0 lead.
Lakeside continued to have woes on offense as they lost a second fumble as Tyree Davis had a scoop-and-score to give the Tide the 19-0 win. Minden had forced three turnovers for the night.
Although the Warriors struggled to add to the win column in the jamboree, Coach John Ware saw the reps for his guys as being some good experience. Ware said “We played OK. We just need a little more bright light experience for a few guys and we will be fine. The main thing for us was the reps against some good competition.”
Homer 18, North Webster 6
The opening drive for the Pelicans scored on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Williams to Raymond Castro to get the early 6-0 lead in the first minute of the game.
North Webster gave the ball back to the Pels on the next possession as Homer’s Terrence Gryder recovered a fumble on a bad handoff at the North Webster 44. Delario Jones connected with Antonio Casey on a 41-yard pass to extend their lead to 12-0 with a little under 11 minutes remaining.
The Knights reached the red zone on a couple of big plays and finished the drive on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Justin Stewart to Jordan Gill. North Webster closed the gap to 12-6 with 6:43 remaining.
Homer locked down the 18-6 win with Raymond Castro getting his second touchdown with a 45-yard touchdown run.
Minden 14, Haynesville 14 (tie)
Haynesville took advantage of an early Crimson Tide fumble recovered by Bryce Modisette. Moise Critton scored on a 4-yard run for the Tors. Haynesville takes a 7-0 lead with 11:37 remaining.
Moise Critton crashed the end zone for the second time on a 19-yard touchdown run to look as if Haynesville had control with the 14-0 lead with 7:52 remaining.
The Crimson Tide changed to a run game and started pushing down the field. Minden returned to the passing game as they reached the red zone and Kaiden King to Abreon Carey on a 16-yard touchdown pass closed the gap to 14-6.
The late score fired up the Tide defense and forced Haynesville to a three-and-out forcing the Tors to punt. Minden returned the punt to the Haynesville 34 with 2:33 remaining. King struck again on a 21-yard touchdown set Jaden Johnson with 1:06 remaining. The Tide had closed in 14-12. King converted the two point conversion with a pass to Javen Calloway to complete the comeback and catch up with Haynesville.
Minden head coach Spencer Heard was pleased but sees where they need to improve. Heard said, “Overall I was pleased with our effort last night at the jamboree. Offensively, we showed signs of being explosive, however; we need to be more consistent in our execution and ball security. We saw marked improvement on the defensive side in terms of our tackling and adjustments. This is a fun group of guys to coach and we are very excited about the season.”
North Webster 0, Haynesville 0 (tie)
The defensive slobber knocker saw neither team reach too far away from midfield. Haynesville’s last drive saw a late scare as quarterback Miller Toney tossed in the end zone to Ethan Henderson but was dropped. Haynesville faced a 4th and 22 but was sacked at midfield. North Webster held on for the 0-0 tie.
Knight head coach Christopher Wilson saw mixed reaction between the two matchups. “I thought we did a good job during the Haynesville game stopping to run and flying to the ball. During the Homer game, we let them off the field too many time and gave up too many big plays and there’s something that we have to clean up heading into Minden next week.”
The season starts next Friday as the Battle of the Boot will take place in Springhill as longtime rivals North Webster will face Minden. Lakeside will head on the road for the first week to face the Jonesboro-Hodge Tigers.