Top-ranked Parkview to face No. 6 Cecilia

• By ROBIN FAMBROUGH
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:18 a.m.

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Sometimes a marquee football game in Class 3A gets overshadowed by games featuring teams from higher classifications.

Tonight won’t be one of those times. Top-ranked Parkview Baptist (3-0) travels to play No. 6 Cecilia (2-1) for a nondistrict 3A game that should attract plenty of attention.

“This is a great opportunity for our football team to go on the road and play a quality program like Cecilia,” Parkview coach Kenny Guillot said. “I’ve told our guys it’s going to be a playoff atmosphere.

“We played them last year and they gave us everything we could handle. I don’t expect anything different this year.”

Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Cecilia High for the game that helps highlight a busy schedule of Thursday games involving teams in the Baton Rouge area.

Christian Life Academy (2-1, 0-1) meets Desire Street Academy (1-1, 0-0) in a District 7-1A game at Memorial Stadium. Southern Lab (1-2, 0-1) travels to No. 6 Kentwood (1-2, 1-0) for another 7-1A game.

Class 4A rivals McKinley (2-0) and Istrouma (1-1) square off at McKinley for a nondistrict game. There are two nondistrict game involving 2A teams — Riverside Academy (2-1) vs. St. John (2-1) at Plaquemine High and Springfield (1-2) at 3A Jewel Sumner (1-2).

Last year, Cecilia held the lead on Parkview going into the fourth quarter. The Eagles, who went on to finish 15-0 en route to a Class 3A state title, rallied to win that game, 29-28, in overtime.

“The thing about Parkview is that they’re so fundamentally sound,” Cecilia coach Jerry Martin said. “They not only run the option well, they run several versions of it.

“When a team does that it puts pressure on the defense because there are different responsibilities for every kind of option there. You mess up one assignment and that’s a big play for them.

“Last year we made three critical mistakes in the fourth quarter. If we eliminate just one of those, it could have been a different game.”

Neither team has gaudy offensive numbers. Brant Legendre leads Parkview with 340 rushing yards on 44 carries with six touchdowns. Drew Dileo adds 211 rushing yards. Quarterback Brady Wilson has thrown only 14 passes for the Eagles.

Two-way standout Marcus Wiltz, a linebacker-running back, leads Cecilia with 192 rushing yards, Justin Zenon (159 yards) and fullback Orry Landry (148 yards) are next. Kale Saovie has 151 passing yards for the Bulldogs.