'Jacks to face explosive West Feliciana squad

Patterson has big-play potential on offense, and on Friday, they will meet another team not short of it either, when they welcome West Feliciana to the Sugar Dome for a Class 3A regional round matchup.
A week ago, No. 13 West Feliciana defeated No. 20 Jennings, 62-38, in Class 3A first-round action.
In the win, quarterback Derrick Turner rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns, including a 66-yard scoring run on the game’s second play.
Meanwhile, Davon Harris had 104 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including a 70-yard run, while Ronald Sims rushed for 95 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown run. He also had an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Turner also connected with Harris for a 47-yard touchdown pass.
“They’re good,” Patterson head coach Chad Blanchard said. “Offensively, they’re impressive with what they do. They run a lot of veer, but they’ve got some good playmakers.”
Blanchard noted Sims, a fullback, and Turner, a sophomore, are among their offensive standouts.
“Got a couple of skill guys outside that they try to get the ball to, sometimes handing them the ball, sometimes throwing it to them,” Blanchard said.
Defensively, West Feliciana (7-4) runs a 4-2-5 scheme.
“They’re going to play you with four down linemen, two linebackers in the box, do a little bit of blitzing, play some zone behind it (and) a little bit of man,” Blanchard said.
West Feliciana surrendered 38 points to Jennings last week, and Blanchard said he hopes his squad can have success against the West Feliciana defense, too.
“We’ve got to improve on some things, for sure,” Blanchard said. “We struggled some last week — not (with) moving the ball. We moved the ball well but getting the ball in the end zone.”
He said they also dropped too many passes and had too many penalties.
“You got to get rid of those kinds of things in the playoffs to have some success, but the kids have been working hard,” Blanchard said. “They realize that we’ve got to improve on those things. We’ve had a great week of practice so far, so hopefully we’ll keep it up.”
While Patterson’s big-play scoring strikes were limited to the Lumberjacks’ first touchdown in its playoff opener — a 30-yard pass from Sirbatian Charles to D.J. Jones — the Lumberjacks certainly are capable of it.
In last week’s win, Patterson trailed 8-7 after the first quarter before taking a 14-8 lead at the half and a 21-8 lead after three quarters.
Ville Platte cut its deficit to 21-16 with 5:02 remaining in the fourth quarter, but Patterson’s defense made a big stand to win the game.
Shay Ragas recovered after the Bulldogs receiver got behind the Lumberjack defense, and Ragas jumped at the pass. The receiver dropped the ball in the end zone on the fourth-down play, and Patterson was able to run out the clock and preserve the win.
Patterson is led this season by Charles. He has rushed 121 times for 639 yards and four touchdowns, while he has completed 120-of-185 passes for 1,868 yards with 26 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Jones has rushed 61 times for 629 yards and nine touchdowns, while he has caught 26 passes for 410 yards and five more touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Tristen Ausama has rushed 106 times for 609 yards and eight touchdowns.
Nehemiah Augustus leads the team in receiving with 29 receptions for 504 yards and eight touchdowns. He also has rushed 15 times for 203 yards and three touchdowns.
Friday’s game will begin at 7 p.m.