'Jacks to take long trip to North Webster

Patterson relishes the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving week on the football field.
For the second year in a row, the ’Jacks have reached the quarterfinal round of Class 3A playoffs; therefore, it’s a working holiday.
“If you don’t like practicing Thanksgiving week, you don’t like football,” Patterson head coach Chad Blanchard said. “You are one of only eight teams still playing. The other teams have packed up their equipment until next season.”
Patterson (9-3), the No. 7-seed, hits the road Friday to face North Webster (9-3), the No. 15-seed, which upset No. 2-seed Church Point 21-16 last week. The trip to Springhill in north Louisiana near the Arkansas border is a lengthy one.
“I’m not worried about the trip,” Blanchard said. “We have a couple chartered buses so we’ll be comfortable, and we have stops planned to break up the trip. I feel it’s a good life experience for the kids, and the ride gives them time to focus on the game plan, etc.”
Patterson’s first two playoff games have been at home, including last week’s impressive 21-6 win against Loranger.
Patterson jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead and played keep away in the second half.
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring with a 19-yard touchdown run by Tristen Ausama with 5:32 remaining in the first quarter. Ausama continued his strong junior season with 19 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown to lead the Patterson ground game. He has carried 166 times for 1,216 yards and 20 touchdowns. Ausama also had four catches for 51 yards last week. He has 23 catches for 220 yards and two touchdowns this year.
Loranger’s defense double-teamed Patterson’s standout receivers Daylon Charlot and Mykel Jones, which opened up the run game.
“We knew they were going to have to pick their poison and we made our adjustments,” Blanchard said after the game. “We did some things differently this week offensively, mainly because of what they do with their defense. The kids did a great job learning the game plan and executing it tonight.”
Quarterback Sirbatian Charles threw two short second-quarter touchdown passes to Charlot and Jones. He found Charlot for a 3-yard score at the 6:29 mark and Jones on a 10-yarder with 2:31 remaining in the half.
Charles was 12-of-19 passing for 138 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also carried 16 times for 93 yards.
The junior has completed 107-of-176 passes for 1,820 yards with 28 touchdowns and 6 interceptions this season. He also has rushed 92 times for 512 yards and five touchdowns.
Jones had three catches for 25 yards and a touchdown last week, while Charlot had two receptions for 19 yards and a score. Charlot has 27 catches for 626 yards and 12 touchdowns this season while Jones has 35 catches for 622 yards and 9 scores.
“We’ll try to be balanced again this week,” Blanchard said. “It puts more pressure on the defense, but we’ll take what they give us. We had a 17-play drive, a 12-play drive and two 10-play drives last week. It’s super important to control the clock in playoff games, and I hope to repeat that. If you control the line of scrimmage, keep the ball as long as you can and score some points, you will win a lot of football games.”
Loranger had only three offensive snaps in the second quarter last week.
Defensively, the ’Jacks held the Wolves to one score and just nine first downs. Standout linebacker Nehemiah Augustus had three sacks in the game.
“If we can stop the run like we did tonight and put teams in passing situations, we have some outstanding pass rushers,” Blanchard said after the win. “Nehemiah, Shundren Johnson and Tyrik Singleton can really get after the quarterback.”
It’s the run that Patterson must stop to hold off North Webster.
In the third quarter of last week’s upset win against Church Point, North Webster’s Devin White scored two touchdowns in eight minutes.
White had 186 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
He has rushed for 1,824 yards and 26 touchdowns this season.
The 235-pound junior is rated as the 10th-best college prospect in the state for 2016, according to Rivals.com, who says he holds offers from LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, TCU and Texas A&M, among others.
“They are a wing-T team, and they feature Devin White, a powerful runner that’s hard to tackle once he gets momentum,” Blanchard said. “We’re going to try to get him stopped before he gets going by gang-tackling him. They’re pretty basic on offense, but what they do, they do well.”
North Webster also has a second run threat in running back Lyntravious Gipson. He also had a big game Friday with 94 rushing yards on 21 attempts.
North Webster is averaging just over 38 points per game.
North Webster coach John Ware said his team would have a “great game” if they can contain Jones and Charlot.
“There’s two of ’em — that’s like having two Devins on your team,” Ware said.
Friday’s kick off is slated for 7 p.m.
Additional reporting by Daily Review Sports Editor Geoff Stoute, theadvocate.com/sports and www.shreveportimes.com/sports.