Bastrop too much for Zachary

• By FRED ALDRICH
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Nov 28, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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ZACHARY — Bastrop took another step toward defending its 4A state football title and ended Zachary’s comeback season with a convincing 40-7 win over the Broncos on Friday night.

Bastrop (11-1) capitalized on a big play to open the game and followed a first-quarter goal-line stand with a 99-yard scoring drive to grab the momentum, then capitalized on six turnovers by Zachary (7-5) to keep the Broncos from mounting a serious threat.

Bastrop will host Belle Chasse, which beat Eunice 40-31, in a semifinal game next Friday in Bastrop.

“It was a tough night for the fumble bug to bite us,” Zachary coach Bob Howell said. “You might survive that (four lost fumbles and two interceptions) against some other teams, but not against them.

“We know we can play a lot better. We just didn’t play our best football tonight.”

Zachary’s only score came on a 16-yard run by Wendale Collins late in the second quarter to narrow the score to 20-7, but the Rams answered with a touchdown on a 1-yard run by Javante Watson, his third touchdown of the first half, to give the visitors a 26-7 halftime lead.

Watson had scored earlier on a 7-yard pass from quarterback Rueben Randle and a fumble recovery in the end zone after Josh White took a Randle pass to the 3-yard line but fumbled into the end zone.

Bastrop coach Brad Bradshaw sounded very little like a winning coach after the game.

“We left three starters back at the house tonight,” Bradshaw said. “One of our starting linebackers got in a car wreck coming back from dove hunting and another one got ejected in the first quarter and we’re scrambling to find someone to play. And my quarterback can’t run.

“The whole reason we won was the turnovers went in our favor tonight,” he said.

Randle, the quarterback who Bradshaw said couldn’t run, is suffering from a leg injury and ran only when he was flushed from the pocket, but he managed to display his running skill on a 21-yard scramble for the Rams’ third touchdown. He was trapped and nearly wrapped up by the Zachary pass rush, but he broke away and scored just inside the right pylon, eluding several defenders.

“He normally would have tucked and run a lot more in the game. He can’t run, but he’s still got some magic in him,” Bradshaw said of Randle.

The Rams opened the game with a double pass. Randle threw a backward pass to Darren Anderson on the sideline and Anderson tossed to Rodney Heard behind the Zachary secondary for a 61-yard gain.,