North Webster won in thrilling style to end Bossier’s undefeated season and pick up the Knights’ first district win of the season.
The Knights traded touchdowns late with the Bearkats (5-1), but Roc Hawthorne caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Jocquez Thomas with 18 seconds left in the game and the score tied that gave North Webster a 35-28 lead with less than a minute in the game.
“Obviously this is a huge win for us, especially considering we didn’t really well the whole game,” North Webster head coach John Ware said. “We played pretty good defense throughout the night. They got some bi pass plays off that caught us off guard.”
North Webster turned the ball over five times in the game, including four interceptions thrown in the first half.
Still, the Knights put the ball in the air for the game-winning touchdown to Hawthorne.
“The turnovers, the interceptions in the first half made their defense back off of us a little bit, which allowed us to run the ball mainly,” Ware said. “We put the ball in Scottie [Johnson’s] hands and he had a massive game.”
Reigning MPH All-Parish Player of the Year Scottie Johnson ended the night with an astounding 302 yards on 23 carries.
“Most of that was in the second half,” Ware said. “In the second half we scored 21 points mainly just running the football. We just started feeding Scottie.”
North Webster came back from down 14-0 early after returning one of the early interceptions back for a Pick Six.
The Knights scored to make it 14-6 and had a chance to tie the game up before halftime but couldn’t convert.
The Knights stormed back in the second half, eventually taking a 21-20 lead after blocking an extra point attempt by the Bearkats.
“There were two minutes left in the game and we were ahead,” Ware said. “They had no timeouts. We were just trying to get a first down and the game would have been over.”
Instead, Johnson did too well of a job running the ball, scoring a 60-yard touchdown that ironically brought Bossier back into the game.
“If he had just have gone down, the game would have been over,” Ware said. “We could have just ran out the clock. It’s hard to tell a player to do that. He just did what he knew.”
Bossier got the ball back, scored on a long touchdown pass, and completed the two-point conversion to tie the game at 28 with forty seconds left on the clock.
Bossier kicked off, but had to re-kick after a penalty. The Knights expected a squib kick to follow, but Bossier kicked the ball over North Webster’s heads. The Knights started the last drive on their own 25-yard line.
Thomas scrambled for a ten-yard gain and a first down.
“We were around mid-field,” Ware said. “We called for a post play over the middle.
“Jocquez hit Roc in stride around the 15-yard line and went in for the touchdown.”
Hawthorne crossed the goal line for the game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds left in the game.
The clock ran out soon after, and North Webster had crawled back to .500, won their first district game of the season, and ended Bossier’s five-game win streak.
“We took away what they like to do on defense,” Ware said. “We took away their sweeps on the outside, I think that threw them off a little bit.”
The Knights improve to 3-3 this season.
North Webster heads back on the road next Friday for a Webster Parish showdown with Lakeside (1-4) in Sibley.
“Lakeside is not bad at all,” Ware said. “They’ve had some tough losses. Just about every game they’ve played, they’ve been in it until the end.
“They will pose a threat to us, no doubt about it.
“We will need to play well to win it.”