The St. Mary’s football team earned a spot in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Class A top 10 poll Monday and as a bonus, picked up a home game this week.
The Tigers were scheduled to visit Jonesville Friday to face Block High School this Friday night, but now will host Block in Turpin Stadium at 7:30 Thursday night.
The change resulted from an unplayable home field for the Bears, said SMHS coach Aaron York. The decision was mutually agreed upon Monday afternoon.
St. Mary’s (5-1) has won five straight games to power into the LSWA top 10 poll for the first time since 2018. The Tigers pulled down 49 points from 12 LSWA voters to zoom from just outside the top 10 to No. 8 in the state in a poll combining the select and non-select teams in each classification.
“That’s exciting. These kids deserve some recognition,” said York. “They’ve played hard up to this point, and I believe they’re going to keep playing yard. We’ll see where this ride takes us.
“It’s a reward for what they’ve done so far, and it’s incentive to keep winning,” he said.
“I feel good about where we’re going.”
He also feels good about not going out of town this week.
“We looked at different options, and one factor was that the (game) officials are hard to find on Fridays. We have parent-teacher conferences Thursday evening, so all our coaches are tied up until six (o’clock). We wouldn’t have enough turnaround time to get our field ready, so we are fortunate to be able to go over to NSU and kick off at 7:30,” said York.
That breaks up a string of road games. After last week’s homecoming victory over Northwood-Lena, St. Mary’s was slated for visits to Block, Montgomery and Logansport in the next three games until Monday’s switch.
LSWA Class A Top 10 for Oct. 12
Ouachita Christian, 6-0, (10 first place votes), 142 points
Calvary Baptist, 5-1, (2), 134 points
Grand Lake, 6-0, 118 points
Southern Lab, 3-2, 107 points
Oak Grove, 3-3, 83 points
Homer, 4-2, 77 points
Ascension Catholic, 2-1, 70 points
St. Mary’s, 5-1, 49 points
Westminster Christian, 6-0, 32 points
St. Frederick, 4-2, 29 points
Also receiving votes: Vermilion Catholic 27, Haynesville 27, Opelousas Catholic 24, St. Edmond 13, Cedar Creek, Country Day, Glenbrook, Logansport, all with 1 point.
