Woodlawn stalls, Zachary runs away in the second half, 33-6

Oct 7, 2022

A slew of untimely penalties stalled Woodlawn High’s attempts to build upon an early lead Thursday until Zachary finally ran away with a big second-half.

The visiting Broncos scored 33 unanswered, led by three rushing touchdowns, to top the host Panthers, 33-6, in the nationally televised matchup.

“I feel like we played our best half of football all season long after that first half,” Woodlawn coach Marcus Randall said. “We didn’t turn the ball over. We moved the ball up and down the field other than getting set back by penalties… Then they got that surge there in the third quarter after we couldn’t get the momentum again because of the penalties just stopping drives.

“We’re moving the ball, moving the ball, moving the ball, then we get a penalty that put us in second-and-long, third-and-long and putting us into situations where there’s only so many plays you can run. And that kept putting the defense out there and at that point it kind of looked like we started to wear down.”

LSU-committed quarterback Rickie Collins and fellow senior Jamarcus Sewell put Woodlawn on the board first midway through the second quarter of a low-scoring first half.

But the Broncos responded the next two drives with rushing touchdowns by junior running backs Kameron Thomas and Ethan Veal to take a 14-6 lead into halftime.

Alabama-committed quarterback Eli Holstein found fellow senior Jalen Wright with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter to extend Zachary’s advantage to 20-6.

And Thomas added his second touchdown just over three minutes later to stretch the margin to 27-6 following the extra point.

The Panthers meanwhile had one seemingly promising opportunity after another lose steam upon miscues that left Randall and company frustrated.

Holstein and junior Tyson George connected in the fourth quarter to put the final exclamation point on the Broncos’ night.

“I thought we played a solid game across the board in a lot of ways,” Randall said. It was one of our better games if you take out some of those plays in the third quarter where we gave up some of those runs. We’ve just got to keep on working, get back to doing what we do and eliminate some of these penalties.”

Woodlawn Football prepares for Zachary High, ESPNU broadcast

Oct 6, 2022

Woodlawn High will welcome new District 4-5A rival Zachary High, an anticipated large crowd and a national ESPNU broadcast to campus Thursday.

The highly anticipated meeting of two of Louisiana’s most talented teams was always expected to be among the state’s premier midseason matchups.

But the full reach of the high-profile broadcast has started to register with several of the Panthers seniors as the game fast approaches.

“It hit me when my grandmaw called and said the whole church was gonna be watching Thursday,” senior linebacker Jaydan Moulds said. “I’m from a little city (Brandon) in Mississippi, so hearing that little town in a whole different state, that they’re all going to be watching, that’s big.”

Senior defensive lineman Cameron Johnson joked — “joked” — that he would love to propel the opportunity into both a college scholarship and a name, image and likeness deal with Skittles candy company.

“It’s big,” he said. “All my people said they’re gonna be watching the game, a whole lot of people I know. And it’s like if I could show out in this game, college coaches could see me and I could help increase my chances of getting an offer off this one game. So it’s a lot riding in a lot of ways, but it’s also just a really important game.”

Woodlawn kicked off this season with lofty state championship expectations, and the deep senior class still considers the team’s ceiling to be high if it can start putting impressive flashes together into a more consistent performance overall.

The Panthers fell to 2-3 this past weekend with a heartbreaking homecoming loss to St. James after a strong three quarters.

“I feel like this game could be a turning point for us in the season,” senior defensive lineman Devin Boyd said. “In this game, I feel like we’re counted out. So I feel like if we can come up with a big win against a great team, we would shock a lot of people and we would show that we can actually play with the best teams in the state.”

Reigning Class 5A champion Zachary will seek its second straight victory on the season after suffering its first loss since 2020 three weeks ago.

The potential return of Alabama-committed Broncos star Eli Holstein from an injury could also set up an SEC-bound quarterback battle with Woodlawn star and LSU commit Rickie Collins.

“Shooootttt, I feel like it’s going to be packed and be a nice game atmosphere,” Tennessee-committed cornerback Jordan Matthews said. “I feel like it’s going to be something like in college. It will definitely get people ready to go to college to play in a game like this, and the competition is gonna be up there. So we’re definitely going to be prepared.”

Tickets are available online for $15.

Woodlawn Football stumbles late against St. James, 30-27

Oct 1, 2022

Woodlawn High appeared poised early in the fourth quarter Friday to seal away a third straight victory and kick its homecoming celebration into full-gear.

But visiting St. James (4-1) flipped the script with a swift comeback and left the home-standing Panthers (2-3) stunned as time expired on their attempted answer.

“I think that we played hard and we played to the end,” coach Marcus Randall said. “But we came out and did some things, and they made some plays and made one more play they we made right there toward the end of the game.”

The Wildcats struck first with a goal-line run by Kaden Williams to cap a first-quarter possession on which the senior running back was heavily featured.

But Woodlawn took a 14-6 lead into halftime on a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Rickie Collins to fellow seniors Clayton Adams and Tramon Douglas II.

And the Panthers took a stronger hold with a defensive goal-line stand in the third quarter, capped by a fourth-down deflection by senior corner Jordan Matthews, and an ensuing march down the field.

Adams continued his impressive evening with a winding and powering 13-yard run through missed tackles early in the fourth quarter to a 21-6 lead after the extra point.

“This is what we’ve been looking for from Clayton,” Randall said. “We knew he was the senior receiver coming back with the most experience and the most accolades, and we’ve definitely been looking for him to have this type of game every week. But I think this is the best time for him to get hot if he’s gonna get hot as we enter district. We know we’ve got a big one next week, and hopefully we can build off of some things that we were able to build this week.”

St. James still had plenty of time and plenty of fight and big plays up its sleeves.

Junior quarterback Brayden Williams capped the Wildcats’ next drive with a fourth-down touchdown run and two-point pass to junior Kobe Brown to pull back within 21-14 with 9:10 remaining.

And senior Zaylen Brown snatched an interception plays later and retuned it 50 yards to the end zone in a stunned Panther Stadium.

Brayden Williams and Kaden Williams connected for the go-ahead two-point conversion to provide St. James a 22-21 advantage with 8:03 on the clock.

“They had that 16-point swing on us at the end, and that was really the tale of the game,” Randall said. “We ended up getting back in it. And then fourth-and-forever, we end up giving up a hook-and-lateral on a perfect play that they executed perfectly, got the first down, kept the game going and eventually scored on us right there late.”

Collins, Adams, senior running back Jay’veon Haynes and company pieced together an answer with a long drive and goal-line Collins run to pull back ahead, 27-22, with 3:05 to play.

But the Wildcats would have and make the most of the last opportunity for a full drive.

Backed into a fourth-and-21 from its own territory, St. James pulled off a highlight-reel hook-and-lateral between Brayden Williams, LSU commit Khai Prean and junior speedster Kobe Brown to keep its hopes alive.

And the Wildcats kept willing their way to an eventual touchdown from a rolling Brayden Williams to a tightly covered Kobe Brown, followed by two points on another quarterback keeper.

“We knew that was going to be a tough game,” Randall said. “And I think we came out and did enough to have ourselves a shot to win the game there, and I think (the players) know it, too. If we get the fourth-down stop on fourth-and-forever, we’re walking out of here with a W instead of an L. So that’s some of the things we’ve got to continue to work on and have been working on is just those situations in games, and this will be another one that they’ve now seen.”

Woodlawn will host reigning Class 5A champion Zachary next Thursday in a District 4-5A opener that ESPN will broadcast to a national audience.