’Jacks to open playoffs against No. 26 Richwood

The No. 7 seed Patterson Lumberjacks will begin Class 3A postseason play with a first-round matchup Friday at home against the No. 26 seed Richwood Rams.
Patterson (7-3), the champion of District 9-3A, enters the postseason on a seven-game winning streak after dropping its first three games of the season.
Meanwhile, Richwood enters Friday’s matchup with a 3-7 mark, including a 2-2 mark in District 2-3A.
However, nine of the 10 teams on Richwood’s schedule advanced to the postseason this year.
The Rams play in a district that includes defending state champion Union Parish, who defeated the Rams 57-0 in both teams’ regular season finale a week ago.
Richwood also fell to Class 1A’s top seed, Mangham High School, earlier this season.
“They’re a good team because they’re in the playoffs and they’re in a tough district up north in that Ouachita Parish 3A district,” Patterson head coach Chad Blanchard said.
Blanchard said offensively, the Rams run an unbalanced power I.
“Offensively, they’re going to run the football,” he said. “They pride themselves on being a good running team. They’re going to get in personnel groups with extra tight ends and extra fullbacks and running backs and they’re going to try to run the football. They want to try to control the line of scrimmage and move the ball that way.”
However, Blanchard said Richwood has lined up in four wide receiver sets and thrown the ball.
“They’ve tried some different things,” he said.
Blanchard said Richwood’s top skill players include senior quarterback David Allen and junior running back Tarquez Allen.
“They’re both good football players,” Blanchard said. “They’re both good runners.”
Others to look out for are linemen, senior Steven Bosley, a 5-foot, 11-inch, 280-pounder, and junior Matt Matthews, a 6-foot, 310 pound lineman.
Blanchard said Richwood plays a lot of its players on both sides of the football.
On defense, Blanchard said Richwood runs a 3-4 scheme and wants to put a lot of people at the line of scrimmage to stuff the run.
In last week’s loss to Union Parish, the Farmers led 20-0 at the conclusion of the first quarter and 42-0 at the half en route to the easy victory.
Patterson, meanwhile, raced out to a 34-0 lead against Franklin a week ago by halftime en route to a 41-6 victory. Franklin scored its lone touchdown late in the game in which a running clock was used in the second half.
Patterson had 437 yards of total offense (213 rushing and 224 passing).
Quarterback Sirbatian Charles completed 11 of 13 passes for 224 yards and four touchdowns, while Nehemiah Augustus caught two passes for 94 yards and a touchdown, while Tristen Ausama had three catches for 54 yards and two scores, Mykel Jones, three catches for 52 yards, and Daylon Charlot, three catches for 24 yards and a touchdown.
D.J. Jones led Patterson’s rushers with 12 carries for 80 yards and a score while Charles and Dontre Nicholas each scored a touchdown.
Defensively, Patterson limited Franklin to one first-half first down via a pass interference penalty and just five the entire night.
Franklin had 48 yards of offense in the game.
This season, Ausama leads Patterson’s ground game with 131 carries for 963 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Charles has rushed 70 times for 404 yards and four touchdowns. John Davis is third on the team with 44 carries for 227 yards and three scores.
Through the air, Charles has completed 85 of 142 passes for 1,554 yards with 24 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
Mykel Jones and Charlot lead Patterson’s receivers. Jones has caught 29 passes for 550 yards and seven scores, while Charlot, an Alabama commit who earlier this week received his Under Armour All-American game jersey, has caught 21 passes for 531 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Augustus also has five catches for 178 yards and four touchdowns for Patterson, while Ausama has 19 receptions for 169 yards and two scores.
While Patterson originally was supposed to play Franklin last Friday, the game was moved up to Thursday due to a shortage of referees. Blanchard said any extra time off is good for his coaches and players in their playoff preps.
This week in practice, Blanchard said his players have been locked in on the task at hand.
“They understand what’s on the line,” he said. “They understand if they don’t take care of business then … the seniors, it’s their last game. They don’t want it to be their last game, and they have enough playoff experience, the older guys, that they know what to expect as for preparation, they know what kind of intensity the game’s going to be, they understand that this is special and they understand that they have to do things the right way in order to keep playing. … They’re (the team) excited. They’re ready to keep playing for a while here hopefully and see how we end up here.”