NATCHITOCHES
West Monroe continued its ducky dynasty in District 2-5A football, rolling to an easy 53-7 victory over Natchitoches Central for its 19th straight district championship Friday night.
Dustin Mitchell, a former linebacker who took over as quarterback after Jon Randall Belton was injured a few weeks ago, passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, and Steven Jones ran for two touchdowns to spark West Monroe’s win.
The Rebels improved to 8-2 overall and 5-0 in district, while NCHS, which clinched a playoff spot with a win last week over Pineville, slipped to 5-5 and 2-3.
First-round pairings for net week’s playoffs will be announced by the LHSAA Sunday.
West Monroe held NCHS to minus-11 rushing yards on a night when the Rebels built a 40-0 lead by halftime.
Jones carried eight times for 53 yards and scored on runs of 32 and 20 yards. Mitchell completed three passes for 88 yards and had a 22-yard TD to Johnny Johnson and a 33-yard scoring strike to Taylor Hayes. He also had a 21-yard touchdown run.
Kolby Lee, who was one of three quarterbacks to see action for the Rebels, had a 45-yard scoring strike to Zach Ainsworth.
NCHS quarterback Austin Guy, meanwhile, completed just 13 of 36 passes for 168 yards, with the majority of his successful strikes coming after halftime, by which time he was just 3 of 14 for 19 yards. He had two passes intercepted.
The lone touchdown for NCHS came late in the contest on a 2-yard run by Chris Reed to cap a 12-play, 94-yard drive. A 33-yard pass from Guy under pressure several yards behind the lne of scrimmage on fourth-and-10 to Reginald Turner set up the score. Turner had six catches for the night for 113 yards.
West Monroe immediately took the shine off that lone Chiefs TD when Landon Mims returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. With a 537 lead, West Monroe went for a two-point conversion but the pass failed.
Zach Alexander kicked two field goals of 33 and 31 yards for the Rebels, and C.J. Bounchie of NCHS had 10 punts for a 36-yard average.
