For the sixth straight season, the Jena Giants football team would be playing a second-round playoff game. For the 11th straight season the Jena Giants would be playing a playoff game at Guy Campbell Memorial Stadium. Fourteen years ago, if you were a Jena Giants football fan, you were just hoping that the team would have a winning record and could make the playoffs.
Before the 2015 season the Jena Giants had only made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs one time in school history and only had two playoff wins in school history. These days Giants fans can pretty much plan for the Giants to still be playing on the third Friday in November as the team has made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs for six straight seasons and ten out of the past eleven seasons.
This year the Giants earned the #1 seed in the playoffs and a bye in the first round. This would be the second time in three years that the Giants would earn a bye as the #1 seed. The St. Helena Hawks would defeat Avoyelles in the 1st round and would earn the right to take on the Giants in the 2nd round. So, this past Friday night the #17 St. Helena Hawks would take on the #1 Jena Giants in the 2nd round of the Division III Non-Select State Playoffs in Jena.
The captains for the Giants were the same that have been all season in Sedrick Wilson, Bubba Stevens, Cale Parker and Luke Smith. St. Helena would come in with a high scoring offense and a very fast and athletic team. So, it would be no surprise when the Hawks won the toss that they would elect to receive the opening kickoff.
St. Helena would show off their speed on the first play as Jamiwren Robertson would return the opening kickoff to the Jena 32-yard line to give the Hawks excellent starting field position. The Jena Giants defense has played very well to end the season and continue to gain confidence each week. So even though St. Helena had great field position the Giants defense forced the Hawks to turn it over on downs on four plays.
On the Giants first offensive play from scrimmage Sedrick Wilson would bust through the offensive line and out run the St. Helena secondary for a 73-yard touchdown run to put the Giants up 8-0.
On the second drive for St. Helena, sophomore quarterback A’myron Baker would drop the snap and Jena defensive lineman Nolan Williams would recover the fumble. The Giants would then go 35 yards in 5 plays and Daniel Hatcher would run over the Hawks defense for a 12-yard touchdown run to put the Giants up 16-0.
St. Helena would settle down and put together an 8 play, 65-yard scoring drive ending with a 4-yard touchdown pass to make the score 16-8. The Giants would get a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Giants a 24-8 lead. St. Helena would then drive the ball inside the Jena 5-yard line, but senior Zadrien Cooper would intercept an A’myron Baker pass in the endzone to end the threat. The Giants would then put the game away with an 80-yard, 15 play drive ending with a Sedrick Wilson 6-yard touchdown run to take a 32-8 lead into halftime.
In the 2nd half, quarterback Deuce McPherson would throw two touchdown passes, a 42-yard pass to Zadrien Cooper, and a 10-yard pass to Adrian Sharp. St. Helena would have an 80-yard kick return touchdown, but the Giants would go on to win 4814.
With the win the Giants would earn themselves a place in the quarterfinals for the third straight season.
Senior running back Sedrick Wilson would lead the Giants with 26 carries for 251 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns. Junior running back Daniel Hatcher finished with 18 carries for 121 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns.
Senior quarterback Deuce McPherson finished 4 of 6 passing with 72 passing yards and 2 passing touchdowns.
Senior safety Xavier Brown would finish with 4 tackles and an interception in the game. Junior linebacker Logan Thompson would return from injury as he had missed the last three games and would finish with 4 tackles, a tackle for loss, and a sack.
The Giants will now do what anyone associated with high school dreams of doing which is practicing and preparing for a game during Thanksgiving week. A lot of teams, coaches, and players dream of doing it but don’t get the chance. The Giants are fortunate enough to be doing it for the third straight season.
The Giants will take on the #8 Mansfield Wolverines this Friday night in the quarterfinal round. The Giants have scrimmaged Mansfield the last two seasons so even though they didn’t play during the regular season they are both very familiar with each other. It maybe a very quick game as both teams love to run the ball and play good defense. The winner advances to the semifinal round where they will take on the winner of #4 Kinder and #12 Union Parish.
Kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m. so everyone make plans to be at Guy Campbell Memorial Stadium Friday night to be loud and cheer on the Giants.
If you can’t make it the game, then you can hear all of the action live on 102.7 KJNAFM starting at 6:00 with the Cajun Seafood and Specialty Meats 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.mixlr.com/kjnafm.
