CLINTON, La. — If you like variety, then Clinton, La., was where you needed to be during Parklane’s 34-7 victory over Silliman Institute Friday.
There was the usual high school football with a little bit of a brawl thrown in.
“I felt the referees did a good job of keeping things under control in that situation,” Parklane head coach Charlie Newlon said. “You hate to see situations like that happen, but it really is not indicative of the entire game.”
That situation happened midway through the second quarter with the Pioneers (5-4) leading the Wildcats (3-6) 14-7.
After a late hit, both teams got after each other, and there was pushing, shoving and players rolling around on the field. The incident caused both teams to lose focus.
Late in the third quarter, Parklane quarterback Chance Schmidt broke the funk and found Dane Hogan for a 40-yard touchdown to stretch the lead to 21-7.
“This play was a play we ran earlier and I messed up on,” Hogan said. “ ‘One, two, three, step and throw it’ is what I told Chance. I knew it was there and we needed a big play at the time.”
That big play lit a fire under the Pioneers as they scored twice more in the fourth to ice the Wildcats on a cool, calm night.
“Defensively, we played very well tonight and really stopped what they were trying to do offensively,” Newlon said. “Be it Tyler Cooper, Russ Brown, Jarrett Forman or John Lecourt, our seniors have really stepped up and we are playing very good defensive football.”
Forman, who had 11 tackles against the Wildcats, agreed with his coach about his play and that of his senior teammates.
“I am a team player for this team. I have played six different positions on this team and we are all team players,” Forman said. “We play with heart and emotion every week and just want to lay it all out there.”
The Pioneer defense has not allowed points in seven of the last eight quarters they have played, but more impressive is the play of the defensive front.
“We have such a good group of guys and we all understand what we are supposed to do,” Russ Brown said. “We just swarm to the football and love to get after it.”
Just as the defense got after it, so did Josh Armstreet — again. The sophomore sensation carried 15 times for 255 yards and three touchdowns. He now is in reach of 1,500 yards rushing and more than 2,000 total yards for a season entering next week’s final contest of the season against Lamar. Although he is just a sophomore, he has impressed his fellow seniors this season.
“Josh is just a great, great runner and understands the game,” Alex Langhart said. “He really makes it easy to block for, and if you just get in front of your guy, Josh is going to get by you in a hurry.”
The Pioneers outgained the Wildcats 415 yards to 149 despite the sluggish start and have now won two in a row heading back to Cowart Smith Stadium for senior night, and that excites senior Eric Boyd.
“Not making the playoffs is a little disappointing, but we have managed to have a good year and played well again tonight,” Boyd said.
“We just want to finish this thing on a high note and continue to help the younger players get better, because if we can get them better for the future, then what better way to leave our legacy?”
