Natchitoches Central led most of Thursday night’s game against Huntington but the Raiders roared back in the fourth quarter to end the Chiefs’ season.
St. Mary’s finishes its regular-season schedule in Turpin Stadium tonight, hosting Montgomery to tune up for postseason play. Lakeview is also home tonight, against Ringgold, in the Gators’ last game of the season.
HUNTINGTON 42, NCHS 28: At Shreveport’s Independence Stadium, the Chiefs missed chances to have a three-touchdown halftime lead and it cost them after Huntington rallied down the stretch in a comeback win.
NCHS, finishing 1-9 overall and 1-5 in District 1-5A with four very competitive losses, led 21-14 at halftime but two turnovers deep in Huntington territory prevented a 35-14 advantage through two quarters.
The Raiders (4-6, 4-2) won their third straight and fourth in five district games with a second-half surge. After going ahead 35-28 in the final period, Huntington recovered a fumble inside its own 40 to halt an NCHS bid to tie the game with 6:50 remaining.
The Chiefs scored on four Kobe Jones touchdown passes, three going to KJ Newton covering 22, 40 and 5 yards. Ronald Bolton and Jones connected on a 73-yard TD strike.
Huntington scored on a 65-yard fumble return for a 14-7 first quarter lead, but NCHS bounced back to take the halftime lead.
ST. MARY’S: The Tigers wrap up their District 3-1A schedule by hosting neighborhood rival Montgomery at 7 o’clock tonight. St. Mary’s is one play away from being unbeaten, with a blocked 22-yard field goal deciding a 29-28 loss to Logansport as the reason the Tigers aren’t 9-0.
The last time St. Mary’s dropped only one regular-season game was 2022, which wound up with a state quarterfinal appearance and an 11-2 record.
Montgomery is 4-5 overall and 2-2 in district. The Tigers have dropped their last two games, at Jonesboro-Hodge (36-6) and at home to Logansport (65-22) after blasting Ringgold 64-30 on Oct. 16.
St. Mary’s shut out Ringgold in the second half last week, winning 67-28 after a wild 36-28 first half in Bienville Parish.
Senior running back John Paul Thibodaux is averaging 120 rushing yards and has run for 15 scores.
Freshman Weston Legrande is the top tackler for SMHS with a 9.1 average.
The Tigers will find out their Select Division IV playoff draw Sunday. They appear certain to get a first-round bye and a second-round home game, standing fourth in Division IV with a 14.48 power ranking. If they retain their No. 4 seeding, they would also be able to host a quarterfinal game.
LAKEVIEW: The Gators ended a long losing streak with two straight early season wins, and tonight at 7 they hope to wrap up the season successfully at home against Ringgold.
Lakeview is 2-7 overall and 0-4 in District 3-1A after losing 52-0 at Jonesboro-Hodge last week. The Redskins are 4-4 overall, and also winless in district games, giving up at least 50 points in each loss.