Russell Hedges
rhedges@bossierpress.com
The showdown is set.
The Parkway Panthers will host the Byrd Yellow Jackets Friday night in a battle of unbeatens at Preston Crownover Stadium.
It will also be a battle of teams ranked in the top four in the state in Class 5A.
Second-ranked Parkway (6-0, 2-0 District 1-5A) did its part Friday night with a 63-14 homecoming demolition of the Southwood Cowboys.
Parkway’s Cory Hamilton goes up for a catch in the Panthers’ victory over Southwood Friday.
Fourth-ranked Byrd (7-0, 2-0) knocked off South Shreveport rival Captain Shreve 28-3 last Friday.
“I’m sure Byrd is going to be as good as advertised,” Parkway coach David Feaster said. “It should be a great contest for us.”
Parkway’s game against Southwood (1-6, 0-2) was no contest as the Panthers rolled to a 56-14 halftime lead with one big play after another.
Parkway had four scoring plays of 64 yards or longer in the first half. Dylan Whaley returned a punt 78 yards for the Panthers’ first touchdown. William McKnight returned a kickoff 82 yards for Parkway’s last touchdown of the half.
“Defense and special teams kind of put us in position to do good things,” Feaster said. “We ran back a punt early on. We scored on long pass plays, too. Every phase of the game we looked pretty good.”
Parkway quarterback Brandon Harris threw just 13 passes and completed eight for 262 yards. Five of those completions went for touchdowns.
The first-half TD passes went to Artavious Lynn (24 and 16 yards), Cory Hamilton (78) and Brodrick Jefferson (64). Stacy McCray caught a 58-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.
The Panthers’ other touchdowns came on an 11-yard run by Harris and a 4-yard run by Demetrius McAtee.
Hunter Huckaby and Austin Averitt had nine tackles each. Tray Walker and Jalon Jones had seven apiece.
