Rebels draw Sulphur next
by Joe Durham, Jr. - posted Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 @ 9:32 am

The West Monroe Rebels will be facing a team which will be almost a mirror image of itself Friday when the Sulphur Tornadoes come calling. The No. 4 seed Rebels (10-0) had little trouble last Friday when they downed West Jefferson 35-14 for a Class 5A first-round win. No. 13 seed Sulphur (8-3) was a 21-18 winner over Covington last week in its first round game.

The reason why the Tornadoes are a mirror image of the Rebels is simple. When veteran coach Don Shows first came to West Monroe, he hired coach Paul Bourgeois as an assistant and Bourgeois stayed on for five years.

"He knows everything we do," Shows said. "A lot of the things we do offensively here, he's doing offensively there. They are a real tight community, they are a lot like West Monroe. I think we'll have a packed house Friday night."

The win last Friday also gave Shows his 200th victory since coming to West Monroe in 1988. During the same stretch, Shows has won 11 straight district titles, six state championships and was runner-up three other times.

"I never thought I would win 200 games," Shows said. "It's been an outstanding run." Sulphur runs a multiple offense and a 4-3 look on defense. "We've got to get back to playing the way we played the latter part of the season," Shows said. "We don't want to put the ball on the ground. We've got to be ready to play."

Sulphur is led by quarterback Coby Miller, who had one touchdown pass to Justin McMillian last Friday. Colt Fisher is one running back who scored a touchdown.

Isiah Ryan also scored one touchdown. Ryan finished the game with 53 yards rushing on 21 carries. The Tornadoes also got a touchdown when Covington fumbled and Justin Breaux recovered, leading directly to a score.

West Monroe quarterback Shelby Aulds had a good night against West Jefferson. After leading 21-8 at the half, the Rebels couldn't score on the first possession, but did so on the second. He was 6 of 11 for 169 yards and two touchdown passes. The first pass was a 75-yard bomb to Mario Wiley. The second was a 60-yard strike to Mychal Manning. Leading rusher was Don Brown, who had 127 yards rushing on 10 carries.

LaDarius Abrams carried the ball in from five yards out with 4:03 remaining in the quarter. The PAT was good and the Rebels led 28-8.

West Jefferson got on the scoreboard two plays later, but couldn't come up with another score as the Rebel defense stiffened. The defense got into the act for the Rebels as Will Blackwell intercepted one pass and reached the quarterback for a sack. Kaleb Mitcham also sacked the quarterback.

The win marked the 23rd in a row for West Monroe, dating back to last season. The game was held up for approximately 45 minutes as an electrical storm swept through the region.