LAPLACE — In the last week of preseason football action, River Parish teams are matching up against one another and teams from afar in this week’s jamboree games for one last shot at making corrections before the regular season begins Sept. 4.

THURSDAY

Both St. John the Baptist Parish public high school teams will be taking on opponents at the Raising Cane/Thibodaux Regional Medical Center River Parish Jamboree hosted by East St. John Thursday at Joseph Keller Stadium in Reserve.

West St. John vs. Amite — 6 p.m.

The West St. John Rams will be taking on the Amite Warriors, who lost in the 3A state championship title game last year.

“They have some talent on that team,” West St. John head coach Brandon Walters said. “We have seen some guys do some good things in some places. We just have to prepare for them and do what we are doing.’

West St. John faced off against Lutcher in a scrimmage last week, scoring four touchdowns to Lutcher’s five.

Walters said going into their matchup against Amite, coaches will be looking closely at the team’s linemen.

“We just want more sound consistency out of the offensive line,” Walters said. “If we have the offensive line hitting on all cylinders, our biggest thing is to hit those guys in the trenches. If we can take care of that on both sides of the ball, we should be pretty sound.”

The Rams will also be looking to get off to a quick start.

“We are going to try to come out more sound and get into what we need to be doing a bit earlier,” Walters said. “We were kind of sluggish last week. People were making mistakes early in the game and had a few jitters. We just want to get out and start playing fast and play well early.”

Walters said his players are feeling prepared for the season ahead.

“We are just getting ready to play,” Walters aid. “We are just going to get it done.”

East St. John vs. Landry-Walker — 7:30 p.m.

The battle between Wildcats quarterbacks senior Alvin Jackson and sophomore Adarius Duhe appears to have died down a little. Jackson threw two touchdown passes, East St. John’s only scores, in last week’s scrimmage against Edna Karr and has been named the starter against Landry-Walker.

“Duhe is still going to play,” East St. John head coach Alden Foster said. “He is athletic, so we’ll give him some plays at running back. But both of them are still going to be on the field.”

Jackson will need to step up. For the second week in a row East St. John is taking on a talented 4A opponent in the Landry-Walker Charging Buccaneers.

In their scrimmage against Edna Karr the Wildcats struggled early, but strengthened in the second half. Against Landry-Walker Foster said he is hoping that momentum carries over for his team. Part of that will be getting the running game going early.

“We are going to establish the running game,” Foster said. “We didn’t do a good job with that against Edna Karr.”

Diminutive running back sophomore Snelvin Keller is a surprise starter in the wake of Dontrell Allen’s decision to transfer to East Jefferson in mid-August and is expected to get the bulk of the carries against Landry-Walker.

While Wildcats coaches have pinpointed areas of play they will focus on, Foster said the overall goal is to get his players in the game mindset.

“This will be the first time we do special teams and everything,” Foster said. “Hopefully our kids respond to it well. It is going to be a big crowd so hopefully we respond well to the environment we are going to be playing in.”

Other Thursday games involving River Parish teams include Jesuit vs. Hahnville, 6:30 p.m., at Hahnville and Donaldsonville vs. St. James, 7 p.m. at St. James.

FRIDAY

Both of St. John the Baptist Parish’s private schools will be traveling for their jamboree games.

St. Charles Catholic  vs. St. Thomas Aquinas — 7 p.m.

The St. Charles Catholic Comets will take on the St. Thomas Aquinas Falcons at Pete Valenti Field in Hammond.

Comets head coach Frank Monica said his team has a long way to go.

Last week the Comets got pounded by University Lab.

“We are looking not only for improvement, we are looking for a total flip from where we were last week,” Monica said.

This week they will have another tough opponent in the Falcons, who went 10-2 last year.

“I am hoping to see a drastic turnaround from last week,” Monica said. “We are looking for our football team to run a lot better than they did last week. I am also looking for our team to bond a lot better than last week and see if we got any better fundamentally.”

Monica said he hopes to correct issues with a number of his athletes.

“If you do what you need to do, every player has a chance at success, but if you don’t, no player will,” Monica said.   

In addition, the Comets hope to sew up lingering battles for starting positions.

“We still have a lot of competition up front and a lot of competition on both sides of the line,” Monica said. “We have some starters we designated now but that doesn’t mean they are going to be there forever.”

Overall, Monica said he will be assessing one big factor.

“The No. 1 thing we will be looking at and evaluating will be effort,” Monica said.

“If you put out as much effort as you can, you are taking care of yourself.”

Riverside Academy at Mandeville — 7:30 p.m.

The Riverside Rebels will travel Friday to take on Mandeville.

Riverside controlled every aspect of last week’s scrimmage versus Vandebilt Catholic. This week Riverside faces stiffer competition in the Mandeville Skippers, who went 9-4 last year.

Riverside head coach Bill Stubbs said his team has still issues to work on.

“There are just a lot of things we are going to address,” Stubbs said. “We are hoping we can improve upon what we did last week.”

Stubbs said the team’s secondary will get a close look against Mandeville.

“From the secondary standpoint they played a little inside their own bubble (against Vandebilt),” Stubbs said.

Another area of concern for Stubbs is his defensive line.

“Some kids that can play up front, they are just not quite where they need to be yet from an experience standpoint,” Stubbs said. “I think we have 7, 8 or 9 kids we moved to different positions on defense. It has been challenging.”

On the positive side, Stubbs said he feels his offense, featuring first year starting quarterback Jared Butler, is moving along nicely, something he anticipates will continue given the team’s depth at receiver.

Stubbs pointed out the play of senior wide receivers Herb McGee and Tyler Gauthier last week as a positive.

As far as competition for starting positions is concerned, Stubbs said most of the spots are set. The team fans see on Friday will likely be the same one to take the field for the regular season.

“I think most of the stuff is taken care of right now,” Stubbs said.

The other Friday game involving River Parish teams is the Ed Reed River Parish Jamboree at Destrehan featuring Lutcher vs. Destrehan at 7 p.m.