The Jena Giants made their second trip north to Monroe in this early football season. The Giants played at ULM in the Bayou Jamb for their jamboree. This week the Giants returned to Monroe to take on the St. Frederick Warriors. These two teams met a couple of years ago at St. Fred and played a classic with the Warriors getting a touchdown pass late to pull off the victory. Last season the Giants dominated the Warriors in Jena as they won 30-0.
During the off-season, St. Fred would lose their head coach Andy Robinson to Neville and would hire Chip Bilderback. Coach Bilderback was a very successful head coach in Mississippi winning a state championship. Coach Bilderback and his Warriors came into the game looking to pick up a statement win for their program. The Giants came into the game 2-0 and were looking to stay unbeaten on the season. The captains for the Giants were seniors Colten Sharp, Jacob Belcher, Zachary Scales and Triston McLendon. Jena would win the toss and would defer to the second half.
The strength of St. Fredericks is their offensive and defensive lines. They would take the opening drive and march it into the red zone before the Giants defense would get a stop on 4th and goal inside their 10-yard line. The Jena defense has made so many big stops here early in the season and they continued that in this game.
On Jena’s first drive they would go three and out backed up deep in their own territory. On St. Fred’s second drive, the opening play saw Jena senior defensive linemen Colten Sharp force a fumble and senior safety Zoyle Gemar would recover to give the Giants offense excellent field position. The Giants would capitalize on the turnover as they would go 63 yards in 11 plays ending with a Daniel Hatcher 4-yard touchdown run to give the Giants a 6-0 lead. That would be the only score of the first half as St. Fred would dominate time of possession and the Giants offense would struggle to get the run game going.
In the 2nd half, the Giants would receive the opening kickoff and would struggle corralling the kickoff and this would allow the Warriors to recover the kick. St. Fred would have their drive stall in the red zone and would pick up a 25-yard field goal by kicker Harper Joiner to cut the deficit in half 6-3.
The Giants offense would continue to struggle in the 2nd half. On their first 3 drives of the 2nd half, they only picked up one first down. St. Fred would pick up another field goal late in the 3rd quarter to tie the game at 6. In the 4th quarter the Warriors would get into the end zone for the first time as they would go 60 yards in 8 plays ending with a Jarvis Walker 2-yard touchdown run to give the Warriors their first lead at 12-6 with about three-anda- half minutes left in the game.
Jena would answer right back though as junior quarterback Deuce McPherson would deliver a perfect pass to junior receiver Zadrien Cooper on an out route. Cooper would go up the Jena sideline outrunning the St. Fred defense for an 80-yard touchdown pass. On the two-point conversion McPherson would hit Cooper in stride on a slant route to give the Giants a 14-12 lead.
St. Fred would come right back though as they would move the ball to the Jena 10-yard line. With time ticking off the clock they would rush their field goal team onto the field and would snap the ball with around 3 seconds left. Harper Joiner would then split the uprights with a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give the Warriors a 15-14 victory.
In the game for the Giants, Deuce McPherson was 5-6 passing for 126 yards and 1 touchdown. Zadrien Cooper had 2 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown.
Senior safety Cayden Mursch had 13 tackles to lead the defense. Colten Sharp had 5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Linebacker Triston McLendon had 11 tackles.
It was a tough loss for the Giants but they still have a lot of the season ahead of them. This week, the Winnfield Tigers come to town for another edition of the 84 War. Both teams will come into the game with 2-1 records as both teams suffered their first loss in week three. It should be a great matchup in Guy Campbell Memorial Stadium.
Everyone come out and pack the stands to cheer on the Giants. Kickoff will be at 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 Jena Giants pre-game show. If you are not in the listening area then you can download the MIXLR app and search for KJNAFM or go online at www.kjnafmjena. mixlr.com.
