The scorching heat Jackson Parish residents have endured over the past several months finally cooled on Friday. Unfortunately, the Jonesboro-Hodge High School football team cooled off as well. After opening the 2026 LHSAA football season by winning five of their first six games, the Tigers fell to St. Mary’s of Natchitoches 55-20 in a District 3-1A matchup.
The good news is that JHHS, now 5-2 overall and 1-1 in district play, remained at #9 in the Division IV “non-select” school power rankings released on Saturday. St. Mary’s (6-1, 1-1) moved up to #6 in the Division IV “select” school poll.
To summarize the contest, it started badly and got worse. In fact, the negative situation began the morning of the contest, when the JHHS coaching staff learned that starting quarterback/kicker King Campbell would not play due to illness.
This was the second time in three weeks Campbell would miss time, but unlike the game against Arcadia, where the Tiger coaching staff knew of the impending absence a full week before the contest, which allowed time to install a game plan around a replacement quarterback, there was no such preparation time on Friday, forcing the staff to make last-minute adjustments.
“There is no doubt that it hurt not having King out there,” said Blankenship. “Things like this happen, though, and we still should have played better than we did.”
JHHS simply did not play well on a night when it needed one of its better efforts. The Tigers committed a season-worst 6 turnovers, allowed two kickoffs to fall to the ground far down the field and be recovered by St. Mary’s, and gave up 20 points through two interceptions returned for a touchdown, a fumble return for a score, and a safety when the center snap flew over the head of the Tiger quarterback and went out of the back of the end zone.
The game began about as bad as it possibly could have. On the first play of the contest, with JHHS at their own 9-yard line, replacement quarterback JaQuan Qualls, who was in the “shotgun” formation, could only watch as the snap from the center flew over his head and bounded out of the back of the end zone to give St. Mary’s a 2-0 lead with only five seconds gone off the clock.
The score would go down in all time JHHS annals as the fastest defensive score ever allowed.
To their credit, JHHS rallied to take their only lead of the game by going 82 yards in only three plays, when after losing 6 yards on the first play of the drive, JaQuan Qualls ran for 38 yards, and Lon’Trevious “Tre: Burns burst up the middle for 48 more and a score, giving JHHS a 6-2 lead with 10:18 remaining in the first quarter.
The JHHS defense then forced a “three-and-out, ” leading to the St. Mary punter booming a 61-yard punt that put JHHS on their own 18-yard line. JHHS then had to punt, and the ball was tipped, giving St. Mary’s the ball at the Tiger 11-yard line and setting up a four-yard touchdown run by John Paul Thibodaux.
The deficit grew to 16-6 with only 8 seconds left in the first quarter, when Preston Tilley connected with Wnn Cedars on a 33-yard scoring strike to give St. Mary’s a 16-6 lead after Thibodaux ran in the two-point conversion.
JHHS responded with their most time-consuming drive of the night, taking over 6 minutes off the clock to move from their 36-yard line to the St. Mary’s 34-yard line, but were forced to turn the ball over on downs. St. Mary then drove 66 yards in 8 plays, capping the drive with a 5-yard Tilley-to-Beau Clark scoring pass to take a 22-6 lead. On St. Mary’s next possession, Tyson Burks made his 5th interception of the year for JHHS to stop what looked like a scoring drive, but St. Mary’s scored anyway on a 28-yard interception return to take a 28-6 lead at the half.
The contest got out of hand early in the third quarter. St. Mary’s went 71 yards in 7 plays on their opening drive of the second half, with Kane Dortion running it in from 26 yards out and then returning a second interception for a touchdown, this one from 36 yards out to go up 40-6.
JaQuan Qualls burst around the right end for a 36-yard score to make the score 40-16, but on their next possession, St. Mary forced a fumble and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown, followed by the St. Mary reserves scoring again on a 48-yard pass play to open up a 55-14 lead.
To the Tigers’ credit, they didn’t quit and closed out the game with their longest scoring drive of the night. Qualls, who had 107 yards rushing, capped a 7-play, 70-yard march with a 48-yard run to make it 55-20.
Despite the one-sided score, JHHS head coach Terrance Blankenship found a positive to carry into the Tigers’ next contest, this Thursday, when JHHS hosts Montgomery at Caldwell-Peacock Stadium on the Jonesboro-Hodge High School campus.
“We challenged the guys to finish strong,” said Blankenship, referring to a time-out he called with only 3 minutes left in the game, with JHHS hopelessly behind. “I thought they showed great heart by not quitting and continuing to play hard.”
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
| Jonesboro-Hodge (5-2, 1-1) | 6 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 20 |
| St. Mary (6-1, 1-1) | 16 | 12 | 20 | 7 | 55 |
District 3-1A Standings
| TEAM | District | PF | PA | Overall | PF | PA | Streak |
| Logansport | 2-0 | 79 | 28 | 6-1 | 319 | 111 | 2 Wins |
| Montgomery | 2-0 | 108 | 42 | 4-3 | 272 | 206 | 2 Wins |
| St. Mary | 1-1 | 83 | 49 | 6-1 | 229 | 131 | 1 Win |
| Jonesboro-Hoddge | 1-1 | 70 | 55 | 5-2 | 242 | 155 | 1 Loss |
| Ringgold | 0-2 | 30 | 114 | 4-2 | 198 | 158 | 2 Losses |
| Lakeview | 0-2 | 12 | 94 | 2-5 | 114 | 265 | 4 Losses |