Spencer Heard became the all-time winningest head coach coach in Minden High School history Friday night.
Heard’s Tide dominated the Woodlawn Knights 36-6 in their regular-season finale at W.W. Willing Stadium, The Pit.
Heard is now 64-56. He came into the game tied with Elton Kelly (63-36-4, 1957-65).
“Any time you can do something like that, I mean that’s a very special thing to be part of Minden High School history,” he said. “Just to be part of this town, this culture, it’s a very special thing to me, something I’m going to cherish and remember for the rest of my career for sure.”
MInden finished the regular season 3-7, winning its last two games. According to GeauxPreps.com, the Tide are No. 28 in the non-select Division II power ratings.
The top 28 teams in the final ratings make the playoffs, but nothing is official until the LHSAA releases the brackets Sunday morning.
If the current ratings stand, Minden would travel to St. Francisville for a first-round matchup against West Feliciana (8-2).
Heard and his players obviously knew before the game they had a chance to make the playoffs.
“I told them before the game, look, the only thing we can control is go out here and play our best ball and win this game,” he said. “After the game I told them we controlled what we can control and we’ll see how the chips fall. I don’t know what the future holds but we came out tonight and played the brand of football the Minden Crimson Tide is known for.”
Minden led 14-6 at the half and 22-6 after three quarters. The Tide kept their foot on the gas in the fourth quarter.
“It was just one of those nights,” Heard said. “Everything clicked. Our guys came out and just had the right mindset and played together and played for each other. Both sides of the ball just played dominant football. All our running backs ran the ball really hard. We just had a really good rushing night.”
Minden finished with 258 yards on the ground. Dunavon Robinson rushed for 133 yards on 21 carries and scored two touchdowns. Jakobe Jackson gained 92 yards on 14 carries and scored three TDs.
Minden didn’t put the ball in the air much, but Hudson Brown completed 3-of-5 for 63 yards. Cameron Mitchell had all three catches.
Robinson scored the Tide’s first touchdown on an 8-yard run. Brown completed a pass to Maurice Rabb for the two-point conversion.
Jackson scored the second on an 8-yard run and a try for two failed.
Jackson scored in a 9-yard run in the third quarter. Robinson scored the conversion.
Robinson and Jackson both scored TDs in the fourth quarter.
Robinson finished the regular season with 616 yards rushing with much of that coming in the last half of the season.
“He’s figured it out about the last three or four games,” Heard said. “The light kind of went on and clicked for him. He’s just running the ball different right now, running pad level and running over people.”
Minden held Woodlawn (4-6, 2-5) to 160 total yards.
“Defensively, it’s probably the best we’ve played all year,” Heard said. “I also thought our coverage was good. Just all-around best game we’ve played all year for sure.”