BHS, FHS in jamboree tonight
Published 3:27 pm Friday, August 29, 2014
Bogalusa and Franklinton are in action at the same location today in the Mandeville Jamboree, which is at Sidney Theriot Stadium.
The action kicks off at 5 p.m. with three games on tap. Teams will play a pair of 15-minute halves.
It all begins with Bogalusa’s Lumberjacks taking on Salmen’s Spartans.
Both teams made the playoffs last season.
The Lumberjacks finished with a 4-6 regular season and made the Class 3A state playoffs as the 27th-seed, but lost to sixth-seeded Richwood 33-0 in the bi-district round.
Salmen posted a 3-7 regular season mark and qualified for the Class 4A playoffs as the No. 31 team, losing to eventual state runner-up and second-seeded Edna Karr 53-7 in the opening round.
Bogalusa coach Craig Jones said the jamboree gives his club another opportunity to play against a quality opponent that is known throughout the state.
“They are well coached, and they are known to bring it on defense, special teams and offense, so we’ll need to bring our ‘A’ game,” Jones said.
Jones said one of the factors for this game is the start time being at 5 p.m. He said heat would also be a factor.
“We’ve been working our tails off, but no matter how much you work out, you can’t prepare for this 95 degree heat,” Jones said. “We started hydrating for this game Saturday because you can’t wait until the night before to hydrate.”
Jones spoke about some of the things he’s looking to take away from this contest.
“First thing is, we just want to play some team ball,” Jones said. “We didn’t play good team ball last week (scrimmage against Varnado). Second thing is to be more sound in run blocking, pass blocking and stopping the run.”
The second game, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. consists of a pair of teams that went deep in the postseason in Covington and John Curtis.
Covington reached the Class 5A postseason as the No. 14 seed.
The Lions made the semifinals but lost to eventual state runner-up and second seeded Parkway 28-27.
Curtis made the Division II playoffs as the top seed and won the state title 32-0 over second-seeded University Lab.
The night wraps up with Franklinton’s Demons taking on the Mandeville Skippers.
The two met last year in Covington’s Jamboree, which featured the same teams, and played to a 14-14 tie.
Both teams were in postseason in 2013.
Franklinton had an 8-2 regular season and made it to the quarterfinals of the Class 4A postseason as the seventh seed before falling to Karr 26-0.
Mandeville had an 8-2 regular season record and made the Class 5A playoffs as the 12th seed, but lost to 21th seeded John Ehret 21-14.
Franklinton coach Shane Smith said his club is trying to build off of last week’s scrimmage performance against Slidell.
Smith said one of the things that he’s looking forward to is seeing his special teams in live action for the first time.
“It’s one of the three phases to football,” Smith said. “You can win and lose games on special teams. I look at some of the close games we lost in recent years and sometimes it was special teams that got us. Usually when you score on special teams, you typically win. It’s an important part of the game.”
Smith added that there is a hidden yardage factor on special teams.
As far as the scrimmage, Smith said he was pleased with a lot of things.
“We tend to focus so much on what we’ve got to improve on, but it’s all about expectations,” Smith said. “I wasn’t surprised at how well we played. There’s always stuff that we need to correct. It’s going to be a challenge for us defensively this week because of Mandeville’s offense and some of things they do. They also play sound defense.”
After this, the teams have the regular season openers coming up. Bogalusa and Franklinton both begin their seasons Sept. 5.
Bogalusa is at home to play Kentwood, while Franklinton takes to the road to face Tylertown in Mississippi.