Pine’s Raiders will open the season by heading to Morgan City to play against Central Catholic on Aug. 30.
“It’s a short week, but it’s a big week,” Pine coach Bradley Seal said. “You’re either going to be 1-0 or 0-1. We believe it’s important to get off to a fast start.”
Pine reached the second round of the Class 2A playoffs last season and tallied a 6-4 record in the regular season.
Both teams enter this week after jamboree victories.
Pine defeated Bogalusa 24-6, and Central Catholic won 26-0 over Centerville.
Last week, Logan Temples threw for 77 yards.
Jordan Anderson caught three passes for 49 yards while Logan Leger had one reception for 27 yards and Markell Cotton had a catch for 1 yard. Leger and Cotton each caught a touchdown pass. Cotton ran for 35 yards.
Jaheim Williams was the team’s leading rusher with 65 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, the Raiders forced three turnovers.
Ricardo Handy was responsible for two of the turnovers. He intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble.
“He did a good job,” Seal said. “Not only that, he’s becoming a leader on the defense. Last week, he was communicating and getting us in the right defense like a middle linebacker is supposed to do.”
Larry Williams had a sack and Jaheim Williams recovered a fumble.
The two teams met last season and Pine was victorious, 27-8.
Central Catholic tallied a 5-5 record last season and reached the opening round of the Division V playoffs.
“Week 1 is always important,” Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said. “You always want to come out of the gate playing well. I looked at (Pine). They lost a big senior class, but they’re still very big. They have really good size. They’ve got some good skill guys too — 3 (Cotton), 4 (Anderson) and 7 (Jaheim Williams). All three of those guys are explosive players.”
Minton also talked about his team.
“We’re a junior football team, but a lot of those juniors started last year as sophomores,” Minton said. “We’re based off a multiple offense and we’ll have a lot of formations. We’re going to try to run the football. That’s what we want to do.”
Dede Gant is Central Catholic’s quarterback. He is in his first year as the signal caller after playing defensive back in the past.
Davion Bias, who ran for 700 yards last season, is the running back.
Brooks Thomas is a wide receiver. He caught 18 passes last year, with four of them going for touchdowns.
Minton said his top defenders are nose guard Parker Nelson and middle linebacker Nathan Hebb.