Salmen travels to Westbank to face O. Perry Walker

Salmen travels to Behrman Stadium on the Westbank at 7 p.m. Saturday to take on the O. Perry Walker Chargers in the regional round of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class 4A football playoffs.

The sixth-seeded Spartans (8-2) are going for their eighth straight win. O. Perry Walker, 11th seed, is 7-3 this season.

Chargers’ coach Skip LaMothe talked about Salmen.

“They’re a real athletic team,” LaMothe said. “We have to play assignment football and minimize their big plays.”

Salmen opened the postseason last week with a 34-2 victory over Bossier. O. Perry Walker upset 11th seeded Franklinton, 21-18, after being down, 18-7.

The winner of this game will play the winner of No. 3 Northside and 19th seeded

Edna Karr.

Salmen runs the spread offense. Last week, sophomore Daniel Sams continued his hot play. He had two rushing touchdowns. The first one was a 1-yard run, which gave the Spartans a 7-0 lead. His second came from 5 yards out, which put Salmen up, 21-2.

Errol Scott also found the end zone as he tallied from 23 yards, which finalized the scoring.

The Spartans will be going against a defense that bases out of a 4-3. Sophomore defensive tackle Anthony Johnson forced a fumble that senior middle linebacker Jordan Sennett recovered in last week’s game.

Also, junior back Urell Johnson forced a turnover when he intercepted a pass late in the game, which allowed the Chargers to run out the clock. Franklinton had the ball at midfield when Johnson came up with the pick. Offensively, O. Perry Walker is multiple.

The Chargers are led by senior running back Tyrone Duplessis, who had 126 yards last week, including a 21-yard touchdown run.

This season, Duplessis missed five games but still ran for 721 yards and 11 TDs. In his junior year, Duplessis recorded 2,100 yards on the ground with 28 touchdowns.

The Chargers have two quarterbacks with senior Torrence Massey getting the start. This season, Massey has passed for 489 yards with five TDs. LaMothe said freshman Devin Powell will also see playing time. This year he has 589 passing yards with nine scores.

Defensively, the Spartans base out of a 3-3. The unit continued its good play and helped the offense by scoring two touchdowns, both on interceptions.

Curtis Owens gave Salmen a 14-0 advantage when he picked off a pass and returned it 12 yards. Dedrick Parson also had an interception return for a score, his from 17 yards out.