Two of the three parish high school football teams square off tonight while Natchitoches Central heads north to Benton bidding to break through in a District 1-5A contest.
NCHS: The injury-riddled Chiefs have been competitive in two district losses, to Airline and Captain Shreve. The 32-29 loss to Airline provides an encouraging point of reference since the Vikings throttled Benton, tonight’s NCHS opponent, 57-38 earlier this month a week after holding off NCHS.
Natchitoches Central (0-7, 0-3) takes on a Benton team led by SMU commit Malachi Zeagler, a dual threat quarterback. The Chiefs have topped the Tigers in the last two meetings.
There’s not much difference in the LHSAA power rankings in Non-Select Division I. Benton is 31st and NCHS stands 35th entering the contest, with the winner moving up toward penetrating the group of 28 teams that will qualify for postseason.
The game will be broadcast on 100.7 FM KZBL with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
ST. MARY’S AT LAKEVIEW: The Tigers return to the scene of their extremely impressive 55-20 rout of District 3-1A foe Jonesboro-Hodge last Friday in a game played at Lakeview because Turpin Stadium was unavailable due to a noon kickoff the following day.
St. Mary’s is 6-1 overall and 1-1 in district, one play away from a 2-0 mark that would have the Tigers in the drivers’ seat. A blocked 21-yard field goal on the last play made the difference two weeks ago in a 29-28 homefield loss to Logansport.
That same Logansport squad beat visiting Lakeview 50-0 last Friday night. The Gators are 2-5 overall and 0-2 in district.
SMHS owns a No. 4 ranking in the LHSAA power rankings for Select Division IV, in strong position to receive a first-round playoff bye (the top eight teams get the first week off) and host in the next two rounds.
Lakeview, 34th in Non-Select Division IV, will improve its power ranking by playing St. Mary’s, but needs to win some of its last three games to climb into the field of 28 teams that will reach the playoffs.
The 7 p.m. contest at The Swamp will be carried on the 446 Sports on YouTube channel.