Today, tonight and Saturday night, the three Natchitoches Parish high school football teams have homefield advantage.

Lakeview, St. Mary’s and Natchitoches Central host visiting teams in the second annual Battle on the Bricks NRMC Jamboree at NSU’s Turpin Stadium, presented by Natchitoches Regional Medical Center.

Lakeview kicks off the action against Pickering today at 4 o’clock. St. Mary’s finishes the first-day play with an 8 p.m. matchup against longtime rival LaSalle.

The series of five contests concludes Saturday evening at 7 when NCHS lines up against Leesville.

“You’re excited to see what your team’s all about,” said Chiefs’ coach Brad Laird, whose team won six games and lost an overtime playoff decision at Thibodaux last season.

“It’s an opportunity to line up against somebody else. You only have so many Friday nights, and these young men work extremely hard 365 days a year, not only in football but in other sports, in academics, extracurricular activities, in church, and so many other things they do. As coaches, we love seeing that, and we respect it.”

Laird, beginning his third season, is eager to see the progress his team has made this week in practice.

“Hopefully we’ll be a better football team Saturday night at 7 than we were last Friday night (in a scrimmage against Pineville and Jena),” he said. “We have more seniors than last year, but we’re not necessary more experienced than last year. Of our 23 seniors, we have several first-time football players who came out from other sports this season. I do think we’ll have more depth than we’ve had.”

TODAY

Lakeview vs. Pickering, 4:00

Grant vs. Tioga, 6:00

St. Mary’s vs. LaSalle, 8:00

SATURDAY

Winnfield vs. Menard, 5:00

Natchitoches Central vs. Leesville, 7:00

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