Bossier coach Michael Concilio knew the Bearkats would have to keep the ball away from Loyola quarterback Matt Norton to have a chance to beat the Flyers in their District 1-3A opener Friday night.
In the second half, the Bearkats did just that, controlling the clock with their Wing-T offense.
Bossier also scored two touchdowns to break a 14-14 tie en route to a 26-14 victory.
“We possessed the football,” Concilio said. “I don’t know how much time we had the football in the second half but it seemed like we had it 75 percent of the time. That was the game plan, keep the ball out of Matt Norton’s hands.”
The defending District 1-3A champion Bearkats improved to 5-3 overall with their fourth straight victory. If they beat Green Oaks Friday night at home, there’s a good chance they will play North DeSoto for the district title on the final day of the regular season.
Bossier rolled up 359 yards rushing on 52 attempts.
Quarterback Samuel Dudley and running back Jaquarious Tutt both had huge games.
Tutt rushed for 160 yards on 15 carries and scored three touchdowns. Dudley rushed for 146 yards on 21 carries and scored once.
Tutt had touchdown runs of 59 and 36 yards in the first half. He also scored the Bearkats’ final touchdown on a 6-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Dudley broke the halftime tie with a 1-yard run in the third quarter.
Norton had some success, completing 21 of 33 passes for 239 yards and a touchdown.
But the Bearkats made some big defensive plays, including two fumble recoveries with the Flyers in scoring position.
“We really got some pressure on him,” Concilio said of Norton. “Coach (Anthony) Johnson, our defensive coordinator, made some adjustments at halftime. I remember him talking about some specific things that caused some problems for him in the pocket, and made him kind of rush the ball and throw some incomplete passes and made him get to turn the ball over to us.”
Concilio gave his senior class a lot of credit for the victory.
“I told the seniors after this game this is probably the best effort I’ve seen out of the senior class,” he said.
“We had to have effort from our seniors, and they worked hard and played hard. We had seniors that primariliy played one way that came in on the other side of the ball on several different occasions on short down and distance to get the first down that we don’t normally do.”
