By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BATON ROUGE – It’s October. That means the Rams have come out to play.

Known for its late season romps through Class 1A, West St. John began District 8-1A play on Friday night with the type performance that has become expected of them at this time of year, a 55-14 win over Christian Life.

“We played well defensively and ran the ball consistently,” said West St. John coach Robert Valdez. “We were able to get a comfortable lead and control the pace of the game.”

West St. John (2-4, 1-0) combined efficient offense with dominating defense in the victory. In his second start, eighth grader Jeremy Jackson rushed for over 100 yards again, notching 110 on 18 carries. Blandy Young ran seven times for 96 yards and Denzel Pierre had three catches for 67 yards.

Quarterback Mark Wright had his best day of the season, completing six of his seven passes for 156 yards and two scores.

“We’re excited about his development,” said Valdez. “Especially when we can run it like we did tonight, it opens it up down field for him, gives him a lot of time and options.”

The Rams took an early 14 point lead off the bat on a pair of short first quarter touchdown runs by Jackson.

Young made it 22-0 in the second quarter when he scored from 10 yards out. Quad Howard caught a two-point conversion pass from Jarius Moll.

Christian Life (0-6, 0-1) had a brief answer when Joe David Wilkinson dialed up Dwayne Carral for a 40-yard score to make it 22-7, but it was as close as CLA would get from there.

Wright connected with Moll on the night’s longest play, a 59-yard score to make it 29-7. West St. John made it 36-7 on Wright’s second score, this one to Denzel Pierre. The defense added to the mix on Darzil Washington’s 45-yard interception return for a score.

The Rams held the Crusaders to 127 total yards.