In their last two games, the Haughton Bucs have played what head coach Jason Brotherton calls “good complementary football.”
That’s a combination of great defense and a ball control offense with a few big plays here and there on both sides of the ball.
Nothing fancy. Nothing flashy. But plenty successful.
The Bucs used that combination to defeat the Ouachita Parish Lions 14-7 in a non-district game Friday night at Harold E. Harlan Stadium.
Haughton improved to 3-1 halfway through the regular season with its second straight win. Ouachita dropped to 1-2.
The Bucs and Lions didn’t know they would be playing each other until Wednesday afternoon. Haughton’s District 1-5A game against rival Airline was canceled reportedly because of a COVID-19-related issue within the Airline program. Ouachita’s District 2-5A game against West Ouachita was also canceled because of COVID-19.
“Just finding ways to win,” is another way of describing complementary football, Brotherton said.
“The defense played great. Nothing flashy on offense. We played good. We don’t have a lot of potential to make big plays. (Quarterback Colin Rains) made some great throws. We had some huge third-down conversions that were big. We kind of grinded out first downs.”
Haughton ran 74 plays to Ouachita’s 40. The Bucs had the ball for 31:13 to 16:47 for the Lions. Haughton was 9-of-15 on third-down conversions. Ouachita was 1-of-7.
“We aren’t scoring a lot,” Brotherton said. “But we say that’s good complementary football. The offense is helping the defense, getting first downs and chewing up the clock. Our punter (Austin Patton) did a great job of flipping the field. A lot of things like that that aren’t flashy; the crowd doesn’t really get excited about it. But just good complementary football. It’s just a different way to win games that our fans aren’t used to watching. But It’s working for us.”
Patton punted for times for a 46.8 average. Two were downed inside the 20.
The defense came up with a fumble recovery in Haughton territory. Dylan Turner also had a big interception in the fourth quarter.
After a scoreless first quarter, Dexter Smith scored Haughton’s first touchdown on a 12-yard run with 11:51 left in the second. Carter Jensen added the first of his two PATs.
That was all the scoring until Rains ran eight yards for a TD with 7:51 left in the third.
The Lions made things interesting in the fourth quarter, completing a 67-yard touchdown pass with 7:03 to play to get within seven.
Ouachita Parish got the ball back, but Turner made his interception at the Lions 24 with 2:37 left. When Rains picked up a first down on fourth-and-1, Haughton was able to run out the clock.
Haughton didn’t have any turnovers and was penalized just once for 10 yards.
Rains completed 12 of 17 passes for 15 yards and rushed for 51 on 12 carries. Smith gained 42 yards on eight carries and Keshun English had 30 on nine.
Elijah Rochon caught seven passes for 73 yards. Joshua Sewell had two catches for 25.
Haughton was supposed to play Southwood this Friday. But COVID-19 issues forced the Cowboys to cancel.
The Bucs will now host Arcadia for their homecoming game. The Hornets (1-3) lost to Haynesville 28-20 Friday night.
