Featured photo by Douglas Blow
Early in the second quarter Friday night, the Minden Crimson Tide found themselves down 13-7 to the Bossier Bearkats.
But Head Coach Spencer Heard wasn’t too worried. His offense was performing well and he figured it would take a little time for his defense to figure out how to contain Bossier quarterback Montrevell Lewis.
The Tide responded by scoring 42 unanswered points en route to a 49-13 District 1-4A victory on homecoming night at W.W. Williams Sr. Stadium.
Minden (4-4, 3-2) put itself in prime position to host a first-round playoff game. The Tide is No. 12 in the non-select Division II power rankings. The Nos. 5-16 teams in the final rankings get home games.
Minden travels to Shreveport to play Northwood (7-1, 4-1) Thursday. The Falcons defeated Southwood 47-6 Thursday night. The Tide close the regular season against Southwood (3-4, 1-4).
Bossier dropped to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in district.
“They kind of had us on our heels a little bit, defensively” Heard said. “Kind of running the quarterback up the middle more than we expected. Made a few little adjustments. I think our defense as the game wore on they kind of adapted to the way he plays too. Played a lot better in the second half.
“I felt like offensively we were pretty much clicking from the get-go. Ran the ball really well. Threw it effectively. Just had a good night.”
Minden rolled up 437 total yards, per stats kept for the KBEF-FM broadcast. The Tide had 326 yards rushing. Caylien Aubrey (9 carries, 129 yards) and Kaiden Shine (10-121) both had great nights. Jardon Carey gained 78 yards on 13 carries.
Aubrey scored touchdowns on runs of 5 and 44 yards. Shine scored on runs of 8 and 13 yards. Carey scored from 1-yard out.
Hudson Brown completed 9-of-11 passes for 111 yards. He threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Johnson and scored on a 1-yard run.
Johnson had four catches for 78 yards.
“I thought Hudson had a really good night operating everything and made some good throws,” Heard said.
After Bossier took the early lead, the Tide scored two TDs in the second quarter to go up 21-13 at the half.
Aubrey’s 44-yard run came early in the third quarter. Shine scored both of his TDs in the frame.
Braxton Glover was perfect on seven extra-point kicks.
Bossier sophomore quarterback Montrevell Lewis, who has both rushed and passed for more than 1,000 yards this season, completed 11-of-19 passes for 145 yards with one interception by Kameron Harris. He also rushed for 66 yards on 23 carries, well below his season average.
Lewis scored on runs of 3 and 24 yards.
“He’s very athletic,” Heard said. “They use him almost as a running back in the shotgun scenario. But he can throw also. He’s good. He’s going to get his yards but you just have to try and keep him out of the end zone. We were able to do that in the second half.”