Pine is at home tonight, hosting Pope John Paul II in the regular season finale in a District 9-2A game that starts at 7 p.m.
“It’s a huge game for us,” Pine coach Bradley Seal said. “We need to get back on the right track. We need to bounce back and win a football game.”
Pine comes in with a 5-4 overall record and 3-3 in district play. The Raiders lost to St. Thomas Aquinas 27-6 last week.
Pine is 13th in the unofficial LHSAA Class 2A power rankings.
Seal said that Joey Seal and Jakyran Handy are day-to-day, but feels they will both play.
Coach Seal said Wednesday that Damarea Odom is questionable. Last week, Odom ran for 156 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, Bradley Seal said that defensive back Kaz Warren has looked good at the couple of weeks on defense.
“He’s a three-year starter at corner. He’s somebody who has learned the position and has stepped up in leadership role for us,” coach Seal said.
Pope John Paul II won last year’s game, 19-18.
The Jaguars have struggled this year. The young team is 2-7 overall and 1-5 in district. Pope John Paul II is 13th in the unofficial LHSAA Division III power rankings.
Pope John Paul II lost Northlake Christian School, 14-8 last week.
“We’ve been decimated with injuries over the season, but we’ve had more the last couple of weeks. The bad thing is we started off young. We have a lot of kids that are playing hard and are learning how to play. We’ve played a couple of good games. I thought we played well against a veteran Northlake Christian team last week. Quarterback went out and so did the running back,” Pope John Paul II coach Brett Bonnaffons said.
The game last week was a 14-8 loss.
Quarterback Reese Satterlee and running back Matt Castillo are both questionable.
Satterlee has thrown for 927 yards and five touchdowns and has run for 511 yards and four scores.
Castillo has 357 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Bonnaffons said that freshman running back  Joseph Estopinal will see time. He said that Estopinal is a good back now and is going to be really really good.
The top defenders are linebacker Josh Phillips, end Peyton Smith and end/linebacker Austin Lang.
Phillips, a senior, has 128 tackles and 5.5 sacks.
“He’s the most underrated linebacker in the state,” Bonnaffons said. “He’s 6-3, 220. He’s gained 40 pounds since his sophomore year, so people don’t know how fast he is at that weight, but to me, he’s one top players in the area.”
Smith enters with 60 tackles and three sacks and Lang begins with 55 stops.
Pope John Paul II has two players from Bogalusa in Joseph Ezell and George Arata. Ezell is a senior, who is starting at left tackle. Arata is playing on the junior varsity team at quarterback, receiver and defensive back.
“George is a very hard worker. He’s played three positions on the J.V. team. Joseph started at right tackle as a junior and at left tackle his senior year. He’s done quite well. We’ve run the ball well behind him,” Bonnaffons said.