The No. 3 seed Bossier Bearkats will aim for a spot in the Division III championship match when they take on No. 2 University Lab in the semifinals Saturday in Baton Rouge.
The match is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the Cub Complex.
Bossier is 18-6-2. University is 19-2-2. Neither program is a stranger to success.
The Bearkats are in the semifinals for the fourth year in a row. University has reached this far the last eight years. The Cubs won state titles in 2019, 2020 and 2022.
In 2022, Bossier lost to No. 1 seed Vandebilt Catholic in the semifinals. Vandebilt went on to lose to University in the title match.
In 2023, Bossier defeated St. Louis Catholic 1-0 then lost to The Willow School 4-1 in the championship match.
Last year, the Bearkats fell to Willow 1-0 in New Orleans. Willow defeated University 2-0 to win its second straight title.
Neither the Bearkats nor the Cubs have to worry about Willow this season. The Lions moved up to Division II this season. They lost in the quarterfinals.
Bossier has defeated No. 30 Buckeye 8-0, No. 14 Parkview Baptist 4-0 and No. 6 St. Louis Catholic 3-2 in the playoffs. The Bearkats have lost only once in their last 12 matches.
University has defeated No. 31 Opelousas 8-0, No. 15 Morgan City 5-2 and No. 7 E.D. White 3-0.
The Cubs have won nine of their last 10. Their two losses were to Isidore Newman 6-1 on Jan. 4 and Baton Rouge 3-1 on Jan. 13. Newman is in the Division IV semifinals. Baton Rouge lost in the Division I second round.
In the other Division III semifinal, No. 1 Loyola (19-2-6) faces No. 12 Archbishop Hannan (10-10-3). Loyola and Bossier are both in District 1. Archbishop Hannan upset another District 1 member, No. 4 Sterlington, 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
The state championship match is Wednesday at 5 p.m. at SLU’s Strawberry Stadium in Hammond.