The Bossier City Lions Club Bossier Parish Jamboree Friday night at M.D. Ray Field at Airline Stadium was pretty typical as far as jamborees go.
There were plenty of bright spots but also some things the six parish teams need to clean up before Friday’s season openers.
The most entertaining of the 24-minute “games” was the nightcap between Airline and Parkway. Airline quarterback Chase Williams scrambled for a touchdown on fourth down with 9 seconds left to give the Vikings a 26-23 victory.
In the other “games,” Haughton defeated Benton 21-7 and Bossier downed Plain Dealing 18-0.
Airline Head Coach Justin Scogin was pleased with how things went for his team.
“We ended up winning the half,” he said. “We came out fully healthy. So I don’t think it could have gone any better.”
Nathan White scored a rushing touchdown and Williams threw a pair of touchdown passes to Caleb Nunn.
Parkway jumped out to a 15-0 lead. Airline scored just before the half. After the Vikings took the lead with about four minutes left, the Panthers went back ahead with a minute to play.
“It was kind of a fun little back-and-fourth game at the end,” Parkway Head Coach Coy Brotherton said.
Brotherton liked most of what he saw out of his team.
“It was fine,” he said. “It was a jamboree game. You’re going to have a lot of mistakes. There are a lot of things we’ve got to get figured out. Those are all good reps for us in the scrimmage and jamboree trying to figure out some rotation of kids that can play. I thought our kids played pretty physical, had a lot of bright spots we can take away from it.”
Bryston McCoy threw two touchdown passes to LSU commit Gary Burney and one to Easton Hill.
Airline opens the season Friday at home against Wossman. Parkway plays defending select Division III state champion Dunham at Independence Stadium.
Haughton’s Kendell Hargrove returned the jamboree’s opening kickoff for a touchdown. The Bucs also got short touchdown runs from Isaac Jennings and Brandon Craig.
“I was very pleased with how we played last night,” Haughton Head Coach Matthew Sewell said Saturday morning. “I thought we played well on defense. Offensively we ran only about five plays in the first half. Most of our action offensively was in the second half. I thought we played well there too and we did some good things in the kicking game.”
Haughton has a new kicker this season, Ethan Osbon.
“He kicked a touchback which is big,” Sewell said. “We haven’t been able to do that in a couple of years.”
The Bucs open the season Friday at home against Homer.
“We’ve got a lot of things to clean up,” Sewell said. “We’re not running the ball very effectively right now and that’s a huge area of concern for us right now, probably our biggest area of concern moving forward.”
Benton ate up most of the first half with an 18-play, 80-yard drive. The Tigers converted two fourth downs and a third-and-21.
The Tigers open the season Friday at Northwood.
Bossier and Plain Dealing played only one 12-minute period. The second one was canceled.
“It kind of went how I expected,” Bossier Head Coach Gary Smith said. “We made some mistakes we need to fix before this week. I’m a little concerned about our game shape not being able to play at least a half last night. We’ll see how that goes this week. Just like in a jamboree every team makes those mistakes that you can work on and fix.”
Plain Dealing enters the season with a long losing streak, but Smith believes the Lions have a legitimate shot to break it.
“I think Plain Dealing is a lot better than they have been,” he said. “I was impressed with them.”
Plain Dealing hosts Northwood-Lena Friday.