Pine home against Bogalusa

Published 9:30 am Friday, September 20, 2013

After winning a pair of road games by lopsided margins, Pine (2-0) plays on its home field for the first time this season as the Raiders battle Bogalusa (0-2) at 7 tonight.

Quarterback Derrick Dillon has highlighted the Raiders’ good start and Pine, which has not trailed, has outscored its opponents 79-14. Dillon begins this week with 489 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns, and he’s thrown two more.

“It’s just week in and week out,” Pine coach Bradley Seal said. “It’s his work ethic. He comes here trying to get better each day at practice. He enjoys the game. He’s in here watching film all of the time.”

Seal said the offensive line has played as well as they could have the first two games, but he said this will be their biggest test so far. He said Bogalusa’s defensive line gets a great jump off of the ball.

“When the ball is snapped, they’re coming,” Seal said. “If they are just penetrating our offensive line, we’re going to be in trouble. If we can stop their defensive tackles, we should be OK.”

Pine’s line featured center Devin Phillips, who is flanked by left guard Cole Dillon and right guard Jacob Miller. Brandon Jones is the left tackle with Kabartis Ginn the right tackle.

Defensively, safety Trevor Stuart leads the group with 18 tackles, followed by safety/linebacker Grady McDaniel’s 17.

Bogalusa comes in after losing to Kentwood and West St. John, a pair of teams ranked in the top 10 of Class 1A by the Louisiana Sportswriters Association.

“Right now we’re just working to get better as a team, get better day by day and stop with these mental breakdowns and physical breakdowns,” Lumberjacks coach Craig Jones said.

One area that has really hurt Bogalusa is turnovers, with eight already this season.

“It’s driving me crazy, along with not fundamentally sound football, which is blocking and tackling,” Jones said. “We didn’t do that well last week, so that’s the thing we are focusing on this week.”

Jones said one of the turnovers was an interception on a screen that was deflected. One was an errant snap that Bogalusa tried to pick up.

Bogalusa will have to work through injuries this week.

Quarterback Reggie Roberts re-aggravated a bruised leg Friday, and Jones said it is doubtful he will play. Roberts has scored all of Bogalusa’s points with two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion.

Running back/linebacker William Toussaint is also doubtful, recovering from a concussion suffered in the opener.

Also injured are running back Darrin Holmes (knee), safety Trey Thomas (shoulder) and defensive back Darnel Harris (shoulder).

Jones said Sean Forbes would get his second start at running back this week. Jones said Forbes played well last week.

Defensively, Jones said weakside linebacker Urian Morris has stepped up.

“He’s still working his way in, but you can tell he’s getting better week by week,” Jones said. “He’s a freshman, so he’s starting to understand what we are trying to do and why we are trying to do it. That’s the big thing.”