The Giants entered week eight of their season with a big district test against the Bunkie Panthers. Last year, the two teams met in Bunkie with both teams being undefeated and it was the Giants who ruined Bunkie’s perfect season with a 38-22 win. This year, Jena would enter the game with a 20-game district win streak on the line which Bunkie snapped with their 41-0 victory over the Giants last Friday night.
Bunkie returned nearly their entire team from last year including quarterback Dillon Compton and wide receiver Kyle Johnson. The high-flying Bunkie offense came into the game averaging 47 points per game but the Panther defense has been impressive as well as they have only given up five touchdowns all season and were only giving up five points per game.
The Giants would have a difficult week as most of the town and parish were affected by the flu. The majority of the team would miss practice time from being sick most of the week.
The captains for the Giants were seniors Jacob Belcher, Triston McLendon, Colten Sharp and Zach Scales. Bunkie would win the toss and would elect to receive.
On Bunkie’s first drive, the Giants defense would make a big play as senior safety Cayden Mursch would force a fumble on Bunkie running back Zion Lee and Mursch would recover the fumble to give the ball to the Giants offense. However, Bunkie would strike first as linebacker Lucas Mose would intercept a Deuce McPherson pass and return it 50 yards for the touchdown to put Bunkie up 6-0.
On the Giants next drive, they would struggle to get the run game going which would become the theme of the night. The Giants would turn it over on downs. Two plays later Bunkie quarterback Dillon Compton would hit receiver Kyle Johnson in stride for a 66-yard touchdown pass to increase their lead to 120. The Giants defense would try to keep the game in reach as they would force a punt on Bunkie’s next drive. But the Giants offense would just be unable to get in any type of rhythm in the game. Bunkie would score midway through the 2nd quarter on a Zion Lee 8-yard touchdown run to increase their lead to 20-0 and that would be the score going into halftime.
In the second half, Bunkie would continue to dominate as they would completely shut down the Giants offense. Bunkie would outscore Jena 21-0 in the second half to go on to win 41-0.
In the game, the Bunkie defense would hold the Giants offense to just 80 total yards. Daniel Hatcher would lead the Giants with 8 carries for 47 yards. Zoyle Gemar would lead the Giants defense with 11 tackles and 2 tackles for loss. Colten Sharp would also have 5 tackles and 2 tackles for loss in the game.
The Giants now fall to 5-3 on the season but still have a lot to play for as they are still in the top 10 of the Division III Non-Select power ratings. The Giants have two more games in the regular season and can now focus on putting themselves in a good position to make a playoff run.
This week, the Giants will travel to Caldwell to take on the Spartans. Any time these two teams meet it’s always a good rivalry game.
So, everyone make the trip north to cheer on the Giants. Kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m.
If you can’t make it to the game then you can tune in on 102.7 KJNA starting at 6:00 p.m. with the 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.
Photos from the game:
