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FERRIDAY, La. — Last year Mangham High School went into Melz Field on the Ferriday High School campus and stunned the Trojans 50-36 to ruin Ferriday’s homecoming game. Now it’s the Trojans’ time to turn the tables on the Dragons.

However, it will not be easy as the undefeated Ferriday High Trojans (5-0, 2-0) visit Mangham High School (4-1, 2-0) in a pivotal LHSAA District 2-2A game with kickoff this Friday at 7 p.m.. And this year, Ferriday is Mangham’s homecoming opponent.

The Trojans remained undefeated by defeating Beekham Charter School 32-6 last Friday night while the Dragons are on a four-game winning streak after an impressive 56-18 win at Madison Parish High School. But as Ferriday assistant coach DeVante Scott put it, the Trojans cannot come out flat like they have for much of the season if they have any chance to defeat Mangham.

“First half, I don’t know what it is about us. For some reason, we came out flat. That cannot continue. Once you get a team like Mangham you can’t do that. They will make you pay,” Scott said.

Scott added that at times the defense was “undisciplined” trying to chase down Beekman Charter’s quarterback and running back. Yet he was pleased that the defense bent, but did not break by allowing just one score. However, Ferriday was only up 18-6 at halftime a week ago.

“The defense was on the field too long, and we’ve got to fix that. I give credit to Beekman Charter. Their offense kept our offense off the field. It took six, seven, eight minutes for us to stop them,” Scott noted. “We stalled out trying to make stuff happen that we don’t normally do. I give credit to them for keeping us on the sidelines.”

With both teams featuring stellar defenses, Scott said he expects this year’s match-up to be completely opposite of last year’s high-scoring contest.
“I expect both defenses to come out playing. I want to score as many points as I can. Like I told coach Kendarius Jones, our defensive coordinator, if we can keep them under 21 points we should win,” Scott said.

As for what Ferriday will be working on in practice this week, Scott said, “Conditioning. After that, we’ll be working on being more disciplined against Mangham than they have been the last five weeks. Be disciplined and do you job.”

Mangham’s defense is led by three defensive linemen who can take command of the game and a freshman wide receiver in Rayon Bell.

“Defensively, they’re big up front. Their defensive linemen, they’re some heavy hitters. We cannot let them take control of the game. When we run the ball, we’ll take what they give us,” Scott said. “Offensively, they’ve got some speed. They’ve got a freshman (Bell), he makes the offense go.”

Mangham runs a 3-4 defense in which those d-linemen can wreak some havoc. Offensively, the Dragons run a spread offense, but they’ll also go into a bunch formation when they run misdirection plays.

Scott said the entire offensive line will need to have a big game as well as some players on defense is Ferriday is to come out with a huge district win on the road Friday night to stay with Oak Grove High School and Ouachita Christian School at the top of the district standings — and ruin Mangham’s homecoming game in the process.

“I’m going to put them (offensive linemen) on the spotlight this week. They need to have a big game to open up holes in the running game and give (senior quarterback) Caleb Ellis time to throw the ball. If you give Caleb time, he’ll get the ball to his receivers,” Scott said.

He added, “I do want to give high praise to (junior defensive end) Marvin Davis. He finished 17 ½ tackles last week. If he can turn that over into Friday, that will be great for us. (Senior linebacker) Lionel Scott Jr, him and (junior linebacker) Marion Smith, they need to show up. They both need to show up early, not late. Lionel had 16 tackles last week. Marion had 11 tackles, a forced fumble, and interception for 45 yards.”

And as Scott put it, “This game is already hyped. Last year they were our homecoming (opponent) and they beat us. Now we’ve got to flip the script because we’re their homecoming (opponent).”