Jena Remains
Undefeated
The Jena Giants traveled south down U.S. 165 to take on the Tioga Indians this past Friday night as the two undefeated teams would play in the KALB Game of the Week.
Both teams entered the contest 4-0 but only one would leave The Reservation with their undefeated season still intact.
Any time these two teams meet it has ended up being a great game. The Giants came into last season’s matchup 0-4 while Tioga was 4-0, but the Giants won 22-6 in Jena.
This year, Tioga would have a lot of festivities happening before the game trying to get as many people there as possible. The Giants crowd would do as they always do and that is travel well as they packed out their side of the stadium.
The captains for the Giants were seniors Dylon Davis, Zach Barker, Zerrick Jones, and Boots Green. Tioga would win the toss and would defer to the second half.
Both teams would struggle on offense early as neither team could seem to get a first down on their first two drives.
The Giants would strike first though as late in the first quarter Zach Barker would find receiver Zy Hunter behind the defense for a long 53-yard touchdown pass to make it 6-0. Hunter had missed the last two games with an ankle injury that he suffered at Leesville but quickly made an impact in this one.
Early in the second quarter the Giants faced a fourth and seven situation and would throw an interception to Tioga’s star safety Jacorian Norris who would return it 70 yards for the touchdown to tie the game at 6.
The Giants would answer right back though as Zerrick Jones would once again have an exciting run as he would go up the Tioga sideline before running through a Norris tackle to score on a 58-yard touchdown run. Jones would add the two-point conversion and the Giants would lead 14-6.
On the next offensive play for Tioga, linebacker Jacob Belcher would force a fumble in the backfield and would then recover it to give the Giants excellent field position. Zerrick Jones would then score on a 10-yard run to give the Giants a 20-6 lead. The Giants defense dominated in the first half as they only gave up 2 first downs and 41 yards to the Indians.
In the second half, Tioga would get the ball first and march the ball down deep into Jena territory near the goal line. The Giants defense would once again stand tall as they would turn it over on downs to give the ball back to their offense.
The Giants would get one score in the second half as Zach Barker would throw his second touchdown of the night, this time a 36-yard strike over the middle to Brayden Oakes to give the Giants a 28-6 lead.
Tioga would throw an interception to Triston McLendon late in the fourth quarter that would put the game away.
The Giants would go on to win 28-6 to improve to 5-0 for the first time since the 2017 season.
Zerrick Jones led the Giants with 19 carries for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. Zy Hunter finished with 2 receptions for 60 yards and a touchdown. Jacob Belcher led the Giants with 10 tackles, 7 solo, 1 tackle for loss, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 pass defensed. Dylon Davis had 7 tackles, 3 solo, a tackle for loss, and a pass defensed. The Giants defense did not allow a touchdown in the game and only gave up 144 total yards in the game.
This week the Giants return home for homecoming as they will take on the Marksville Tigers in the first district matchup of the year. There will be festivities going on all weekend so it should be a great weekend. Everyone needs to come out and cheer on the Giants Friday night for the game as kickoff will be 7:00 pm.
If you can’t make it to the game then tune in on 102.7 KJNA to hear all the live action starting at 6:00 with the pregame show. If you are not in the listening area then tune in on the MIXLR app by searching for KJNAFM or go online at www.kjnafmjena.mixlr.com.
