I C6 the livingston parish news thursday, october 4, 2012___

By Sam Muffoletto The Livingston Parish News

SPRINGFIELD – Springfield can finally put their nightmare trip to Slidell to bed tonight, as the Bulldogs hope to turn the tables on a lopsided defeat last fall.

The vastly improved Springfield squad plays host to Pope John Paul II in a District 8-2A opener.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at The Dog Pound.

In last year’s league opener, the Jaguars had their way with the Bulldogs to the tune of a 56-13 win.

Springfield did re-bound to finish third in league play, along with making the playoffs, but coach Ryan Serpas’ squad would love noth-ing more than to take a big first step towards possibly winning the district title this sea-son.

Springfield enters the contest with a 3-1 record, while PJP is 2-2.

The Bulldogs bounced back from its lone loss to Class 5A Live Oak by running away from Grace King 49-16 last Friday.

The Jaguars, mean-while, are coming off a 27-15 loss to De La Salle.

The New Orleans-based Cavaliers are the lone like opponent for both PJP and Spring-field in the non-district schedule. The Bulldogs, however, came away victorious against De La Salle by a 21-0 count.

The Jaguars, how-ever, were critically shorthanded in their loss to De La Salle, as both senior quarter-back Ryan Noonan (6-3, 200) and senior wide receiver Evan Labat (5-8, 170) were both out with injuries.

Noonan’s return for the Springfield game is questionable.

De La Salle, however, was also without the services of its leading running back, Anthony Thomas.

In all, Pope John Paul was clinging to a 15-14 lead with just under two minutes to play in the game. Forced into punt formation, Sean Bruhn, who had also stepped in to take over the signal-call-ing duties for Noonan, shanked the punt for only one net yard, turn-ing the ball over to De La Salle at the Jaguars’ 38.

Three plays later, De La Salle was in the end zone on a 20-yard run up the middle by the quarterback. The two-point run failed, leaving the Cavaliers on top 20-15.

A turnover by PJP on its ensuing possession led to a 53-yard touch-down by De La Salle in the final seconds.

Back-up quarterback Bruhn gave the Jags a 6-0 lead when he tossed

a two-yard touchdown pass to Mason Klotz. The score was set up by a 34-yard connection between Bruhn and Mac Neyland.

That lone score held up until halftime, as PJP led 6-0 at intermis-sion.

De La Salle came back

in the third period with back-to-back touch-downs, the first on a 65-yard pass play and the latter following a PJP fumble, where the Cavaliers needed just 15 yards to travel for the score.

PJP answered with a 69-yard scoring

drive, highlighted by a touchdown connection between Bruhn and Mark Mornay.

The Jaguars then took the lead at 15-14 on a 31-yard field goal by Joseph Mangano.

PJP kept the lead until the final min-ute, when De La Salle

chalked up a pair of touchdowns in a 52-sec-ond span.

Like Springfield, Pope John Paul had its scheduled season opener cancelled by the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, but did start the year with two victories, a 32-20 win over Pearl

River and a 18-6 tri-umph over Riverdale.

Class 4A Warren Easton handed the Jags their first setback of the season with a convinc-ing 36-0 shutout.

Pope John Paul,

SPRINGFIELD Page C7

Springfield opens district slate hosting Pope John Paul

DavID NormaND | The News

Shepard finishes offsensational

LSU runLSU wide receiver Russell Shepard dives for the end zone after getting hit by Towson cornerback Jordan Lovea to finish a 78-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. That run was the highlight of the game for a lethar-gic LSU team, and the yardage made Shepard, with only one carry, the leading rusher for the Tigers on the night.