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FERRIDAY, La. — Even though the Ferriday High School Trojans defeated the Lake Arthur High School Tigers 30-7 at Melz Field in the Bi-District Round of the 2024 LHSAA Non-Select Division IV Playoffs, assistant coach DeVante Scott said that doesn’t yet mean their season will continue.

That’s because the game was halted with 2:47 to go in the second quarter because of a brawl that erupted between No. 25 seed Lake Arthur and No. 8 seed Ferriday. And as Scott pointed out, Lake Arthur had players who were playing dirty.

“Our quarterback (Caleb Ellis) was scrambling and got a first down and got tackled out of bounds. Then a melee ensued,” Scott said. “One of their players threw a punch and it went from there. A player from Lake Arthur took off his helmet and hit one of our players in the head with it. Their coaches were enforcing it on them.”

Scott added that the Ferriday coach staff got a call from Welsh High School’s coaches that Lake Arthur’s coaches was enforcing their players to play dirty football.

“Their coach didn’t want to continue the game,” Scott said. “We don’t know if our season is over with or not because it was a brawl. We’re going to have to wait to hear from the LHSAA (Louisiana High School Athletic Association).”

Before all of that took place, Ferriday (8-4) for the most part used its ground game to wear down the Tigers’ defense. Zylon Alexander scored on touchdown runs of 27 yards late in the first quarter and 37 yards midway through the second quarter.

Ellis threw a 17-yard TD pass to Robert Taylor with less than 10:00 to go in the second quarter that made it a 14-0 game before Lake Arthur (5-6) returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown.

The final touchdown of the game came on a 76-yard touchdown pass from Ellis to Dariyon Brown, just one play after Paityn Collins picked off a pass. And that was with about 5:00 left inthe second quarter.

“We were using a four-back rotation. They couldn’t stop what we were doing,” Scott said.

Marion Scott also had an interception for the Trojans’ defense.

If Ferriday’s season is to continue, it will take on the winner of the West St. Mary-Welsh game next week in the regional round.