For the 7th straight season, the Jena Giants football team had the honor of being invited to participate in the Bayou Jamb on the campus of ULM. The Giants have always played well at the Bayou Jamb and last season blew out Many 30-0. This year the Giants would take on Class 5A Ouachita and the game was held at 3 p.m. Saturday, at ULM’s Malone Stadium.
This year is supposed to be a big year for Ouachita as they return a lot of talent from a playoff team last season including a couple of Division 1 college commits. But the Jena Giants return a lot of players also from a team that for the second year in a row made it to the semifinal round of the playoffs. Both coaching staffs know each other very well as Ouachita Head Coach Benji Lewis started his coaching career in Jena as a defensive coordinator before going on to win multiple state championships as a defensive coordinator for Neville. Also former Caldwell coach Jimmy Sampson is on the Ouachita staff.
On paper, this was supposed to be a mismatch with 5A Ouachita taking on little ole 3A Jena. But the Giants never play the game on paper.
The captains for Jena were seniors Cale Parker, Bubba Stevens, Sedrick Wilson, and Luke Smith. Jena would win the toss and would elect to defer to the second half. The Giants would only return two starters on defense this season so they would be breaking in a lot of new starters. Ouachita would take advantage as they would take the opening drive and go 70 yards in 7 plays ending with a Macario Dade 22-yard touchdown run to take a 7-0 lead.
The Giants would answer right back though with an 11 play, 80-yard scoring drive ending with a Daniel Hatcher 1 yard touchdown run. Sedrick Wilson would run in the two-point conversion to give the Giants an 8-7 lead. The big play on the drive was a 34-yard run by Daniel Hatcher who finished with 12 carries for 67 yards in the game.
Ouachita is very fast and it showed on offense as they would quickly score on their second drive going 78 yards in only 5 plays ending with a Jeremy Jones 10-yard touchdown run to take a 13-8 lead.
The Giants would have around 2 minutes left in the half to try and regain the lead. The Giants would take back the lead though on a beautiful 66-yard touchdown pass from Deuce McPherson to Zadrien Cooper to give the Giants a 14-13 lead going into halftime.
In the 2nd half, the Ouachita defense would make tighten up and make it difficult for Jena to get the run game going. Ouachita would score on Macario Dade’s second touchdown of the game on a 36-yard run. The Lions would then put the game away as linebacker Alex Smith would force a fumble on a Jena quarterback Deuce McPherson blind-side sack. Smith would recover the fumble and return it 50 yards for the touchdown to give Ouachita a 27-14 lead.
Jena would score a late touchdown on a Zadrien Cooper 37yard touchdown reception to make the final score 27-20. Cooper would earn the player of the game for Jena as he finished with 6 receptions for 153 yards and 2 touchdowns. Cooper also had an interception and 8 rushing yards in the game.
Even though the Giants came up short their record is still 0-0 and they picked up some great experience against a very good team. The Giants now turn their attention to the season opener this week at Mangham.
These two teams have played some classics the last two years, and this year should be no different. Mangham defeated Richwood 28-8 on Friday night in Bayou Jamb. Everyone is encouraged to make the trip north to cheer on the Giants as they take on Mangham this Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
If you can’t make it to the game, listen to all the action live on 102.7 KJNA starting at 6:00 p.m. with the Jena Giants pre-game show. If you are not in the listening area, download the MIXLR app and search for KJNAFM or go online at www.mixlr.com/kjanfm.
