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FERRIDAY, La. — Dorian Taylor’s 65-yard interception return for a touchdown highlighted a 22-point second quarter as the Ferriday High School Trojans pulled away for a 50-12 win over the Madison Parish High School Jaguars in an LHSAA District 2-2A game Thursday night at Melz Field.

The game was originally scheduled to be played Friday night, but was moved to Thursday night. And because of that, Ferriday assistant coach/offensive coordinator DeVante Scott said the Trojans’ Senior Night game has been moved to Friday, Nov. 1, when they play host to Ouachita Christian School.

Madison Parish blitzed Ferriday senior quarterback Caleb Ellis perhaps more than expected and that kept him from having the performance he would have like to have had. Ellis completed 12 of 26 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns and one interception. Scott said that the offensive line needs to get better in its blocking schemes in the passing game — especially with two important district games right around the corner.

“Offensively, we’ve still got some cleaning up to do on the offensive line. They played okay. We picked up the blitz well, but not like we should have. They didn’t block as well as they could have,” Scott said. “We wish Caleb would’ve completed more passes. We wish we could’ve blocked better for him. We left some points on the field.”

Ferriday led Madison Parish (1-7, 0-4) just 16-6 at the end of the first quarter before taking over in the second quarter. The Trojans took a 38-6 lead into halftime. While the Jaguars managed one touchdown in the third quarter to make it a 38-12 game, the Trojans responded with two touchdowns of their own in the fourth quarter.

“The bright spot was Jase Harris, a freshman quarterback, threw his first touchdown pass to another freshman in (wide receiver) Jeydin Hardaway for his first touchdown. It went for 20 yards,” Scott said. “Another bright spot was freshman Jumyri Carter, who had two tackles and one pass break-up from his linebacker spot.”

Two other freshmen who stepped up were running back Zylon Alexander and defensive back Christopher Sheppard Jr. Alexander led Ferriday in rushing with 96 yards and two touchdowns on just six carries to go with two two-point conversions while Sheppard Jr. had four pass break-ups.

Along with Taylor and Carter, other defensive standouts were junior linebacker Marion Smith, senior linebacker Lionel Scott Jr., junior defensive back Ni’Zijhiran Robinson, and sophomore defensive back Andrew Foster.

Smith had a team-high 10 tackles and one sack for a safety. Scott Jr. had eight tackles and one and a half sacks. Foster had one interception, one pass break-up, and two tackles. Robinson had a stellar game with four pass break-ups and four tackles.

“Everybody we put on defense, they were flying to the ball. Proud of the defense. They only gave up six points. Even though Madison threatened to score several times, they bent but they did not break,” Scott said.

Taevion Edwards, a senior running back, had eight carries for 57 yards. Junior wide receiver Desmen Jefferson led the Trojans in receiving with 78 yards and one TD on four catches. Senior wideout Dariyon Brown had two catches for 55 yards, including a 50-yard TD pass from Ellis. Junior wideout Marquez Washington had one catch for 25 yards and one touchdown.

Ferriday (6-1, 3-1) travels to Oak Grove, La. to take on the Oak Grove High School Tigers in a key District 2-2A game for both teams next Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m.

“A lot of us expected us to beat Mangham last week and we didn’t live up to the hype. I told my players right after the Madison game, we have to be discipline and prepared to play. We’ve got to live up to the hype,” Scott said.