By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — West St. John coach Robert Valdez likes to say that in Class 1A, he who wants to win the state championship is going to have to go through the Rams’ district, typically among if not the strongest in the classification.

Certainly, it will offer a, if not ‘the’ marquee matchup in 1A next week, as the Rams advanced to the regional round with a 59-0 victory over Sacred Heart-Ville Platte and will now prepare to face St. John-Plaquemine — the teams finished first and second, respectively, in District 9-1A.

The Rams (9-2) dominated from start to finish over Sacred Heart (6-5). Kylum Favorite rushed nine times for 176 yards and three touchdowns.

And, in his return from an injury that’s kept him sidelined almost all season, Jeremy Jackson returned with a bang, gaining 96 yards on five carries and scoring twice.

“Jeremy’s getting up to speed. We were able to get him the ball a bit, and he’s been working hard,” said Valdez. “He’s got so much potential to break a long one each play.”

Austin Howard completed 6 of 13 passes for 100 yards and three scores, two of those going to Lawrence Williams, who led the Rams in receiving with two catches for 44 yards. Jarius Moll caught Howard’s other scoring toss.

“Teams account for Moll, but we’ve got other guys who can step up and make plays and Lawrence made some spectacular plays tonight,” said Valdez. “We’re really blessed to have guys that we can spread the ball around to and know they’ll make plays.”

Williams got WSJ on the board early, scoring on a 19-yard pass from Howard to make it 7-0 after a Steven Brignac extra point kick.

Favorite finished the next drive with two runs into the endzone, a 13-yard touchdown and then a two-point conversion, making it 15-0.

Moll crossed the goalline next on a 14-yard pass from Howard, making it 22-0.

Favorite got loose on a 41-yard run to make it 30-0. Jackson then scored for the first time this season on a 2-yard run; Favorite followed with a 60-yarder. Jackson a 30-yarder; and finally Favorite’s final scoring run from eight yards away.

Once the backs’ game of ‘top this’ ended, WSJ led 52-0. Williams scored once more to cap things off.

“We were able to mix it up, go from our spread formation, our empty sets, into our power ones pretty seamlessly,” said Valdez. “It never changes. We want to run it, and when you come up to stop that then we want to throw it.”

WSJ held Sacred Heart to 133 total yards on the night.

“We played tremendous defense tonight. You put that together with how we controlled things on offense, and you’ll get a tremendous result,” Valdez said.