The Jena Giants opened up district play last Friday night by traveling to Marksville to take on the Tigers. The Giants have had some great wins in Marksville over the past ten years. In 2014, we saw Charlie Smith run all over the Marksville defense to set the JHS single game rushing record with 390 yards and 3 touchdowns. In 2015, the Giants were able to keep their first undefeated season in school history alive with a big win at Marksville. In 2020, the Giants picked up an 18-13 win at Marksville to clinch another district championship.
Both teams would come into the game this year with 3-2 records but the two teams would seem to have different momentum coming into district play. The Giants were coming off a 65-26 loss at Tioga and facing a lot of questions going into their district opener. Marksville, on the other hand, picked up a big win at Oakdale and seemed to be peaking at the right time for district play. It was the set up for another classic Jena-Marksville game.
The captains for the Giants were seniors Jacob Belcher, Triston McLendon, Colten Sharp and Zach Scales. The Giants would win the toss and would elect to defer to the second half.
The Giants would get off to a great start as the defense would force a three and out for Marksville. The Giants countered by putting together a quick, three-play, 69-yard scoring drive ending with a Daniel Hatcher 52-yard touchdown run. Sedrick Wilson would add the twopoint conversion and the Giants would lead 8-0.
From that point though, Marksville would swing the momentum to their side as they would put together two scoring drives with one being 8 plays for 76 yards and the other going 79 yards in 12 plays to take a 13-8 lead. The Giants would have two turnovers with an interception and a fumble on their last two offensive possessions of the half and would go into halftime trailing 13-8 and Marksville having all of the momentum.
The Giants would get a great kick return by Sedrick Wilson to start the second half as they would start their drive at the Marksville 48-yard line. The Giants would then give the Marksville defense a heavy dose of Sedrick Wilson as he would get the majority of the carries to start the second half. Wilson would eventually score on two, 10-yard touchdown runs. The Giants would add the two-point conversion on both touchdowns and would take a 2413 lead.
On Marksville’s next drive they would have a long run stopped at the Jena one yard line. The Giants would face a first and goal at their own one-yard line. We have seen this Giants defense make some great goal line stands already this year but this would almost seem impossible: Four chances to score from the one-yard line. The Giants defense would stand tall as they would stop Marksville from getting in on the first three plays then on 4th down, they would force an incomplete pass and get the turnover on downs. This outstanding goal line stand cemented the Giants’ defense and also cemented the Giant’s momentum in the game.
The Giants would then have the ball at their own one-yard line and they would put together a dominating 9 play 99-yard drive ending with a Sedrick Wilson 24yard touchdown run to increase the Giants lead to 30-13.
The Giants would add one more touchdown as wide receiver Zadrien Cooper would score on an 18-yard run to make the score 36-13. The Giants defense would shut out Marksville in the second half and the Giants would go on to win 36-13.
Sedrick Wilson would lead the Giants offense with 16 carries for 179 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns. Daniel Hatcher would finish with 12 carries for 149 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.
Triston McLendon would lead the Giants defense with 13 tackles, one tackle for loss and a sack. Jacob Belcher would finish with 12 tackles, two tackles for loss and an interception. Xavier Brown moved from cornerback to safety this week and had nine tackles and two pass breakups.
It would be another milestone victory for the Jena Giants as it would be career win #100 for Head Coach Jay Roark. Coach Roark, who is in his 13th season as head coach, has brought this program to heights never before imagined with seven district championships, a quarterfinal appearance, a semifinal appearance, three undefeated regular seasons and the school’s first #1 ranking in the playoffs.
This week, the Giants will travel to Vidalia to take on the Vikings in another District 2-3A matchup. Kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m.
If you can’t make it to the game then tune in on 102.7 KJNA to hear all of the live action starting at 6:00 p.m. with the Jena Giants pregame show. If you are not in the listening area then you can download the MIXLR app and search for KJNAFM or go online at www.kjnafmjena. mixlr.com.
