The good news for East St. John was that by scoring 14 points on Friday night, it had beaten the combined mark set by the two previous teams to face Rummel’s defense — it had allowed just 13 on the season.

Still, the Wildcats came up just short.

The Raiders, the second ranked team in Class 5A, improved to 4-0 on the year with a 20-14 win at Joe Keller Stadium in a classic battle of offense against defense.

East St. John had averaged 35 points per game entering Friday’s game.

The Wildcats led 7-6 at halftime thanks to a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Kalen Henderson with 38-seconds remaining in the first quarter. That was largely set up by a 63-yard completion from Henderson to Dhaquille Williams to the Raider 17.

ESJ took the lead into halftime, but it would be short lived in the second half.

Rummel tailback Amahad Brown ripped off a 59-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to lift his team to a 13-6 lead.

Rummel’s Terrance Jones had an 18-yard scoring jaunt in the fourth quarter to make it 20-7.

Williams scored on a 4-yard run off of a direct snap late, but East St. John couldn’t recover an onside kick in the final two minutes.

For more coverage, see Wednesday’s edition of L’Observateur.