JONESVILLE, La. &045; For a coach essentially learning by proxy Johnny Cox should be knighted for the job he has done with St. Mary’s School’s football program.

It was in the summer of 2002 when, at the drop of a hat, then-Tiger head coach Corwyn Aldredge left Natchitoches, La., abruptly to take over the reins over Cedar Creek’s football program in Ruston, La.

In stepped in Cox, who has coached St. Mary’s girls’ basketball team for the last eight years. All he has done is usher the Tigers to back-to-back Class 1A playoff appearances, including their first-round matchup with Block in Jonesville at 7 p.m. today.

If he’s not careful, and continues winning, this football thing could become contagious.

&uot;We have a lot of kids back,&uot; said Cox of a team that was bounced from the opening round last season. &uot;We’re young, but the rebuilding all took place earlier in the year. The kids matured through a tough schedule.&uot;

Despite finishing alone in second of district 3-1A, St. Mary’s (6-4) received the 25th seed, while the third-place finisher Logansport, who the Tigers defeated 35-14 last Friday, got the 12th overall seed.

Logansport, whose power rating stood at 12.30 after the regular season wrapped up last Friday, bettered St. Mary’s rating of 11.20.

District champion La Salle was handed the No. 6 seed, two places ahead of the 4-1A champion Bears (7-3), who are coming off an undefeated district stretch where they outscored four opponents 247-11.

&uot;It was an advantage to us to be able to finish off everybody early,&uot; Block head coach Chad Harkins said. &uot;I told them we needed to dominate those games and we did. We continued to get better at what we needed to do. Plus we’re healthy.&uot;

Blake Guillory (5-8, 160) led St. Mary’s rushing attack with 710 yards on 126 carries, which includes six scores. Fullback David Howell is more than a blocker, carrying his load of 95 rushes for 558 yards and a half a dozen touchdowns, as well.

&uot;We need the offense to get off to a good start and control the ball early,&uot; Cox said. &uot;There’s not a whole lot of mixing it up. We’re going to run it straight at you. Probably our best defense will be controlling the football. &uot;

Easier said than done against a Block team that loved to humble opponents rather quickly this season with its superior advantage of speed.

Wing back Demetrius Duncan is ranked in the top 30 of all the state’s top rushers with 1,317 yards and 22 touchdowns.

However, what are more eye-popping is Duncan’s yards per run. The diminutive back leads all ball carriers with a 14.6 average on 90 total carries this season.

&uot;I feel like if we can come out, execute and play our ‘A’ game we ought to be able to take care of business,&uot; Harkins said. &uot;Other teams that shouldn’t have been able to matchup with us this season did. We need to be focused (Thursday), not just (today).&uot;

It’s a new song in Jonesville, where the Bears advanced out of the first round last year by knocking off storied Haynesville, only to be out of their element in a 34-6 loss the following week to Kentwood, another 1A power with a rich tradition.

Now Harkins has his sloth of Bears believing they belong with those types of programs, and who can blame them?

&uot;Our kids are ready. They seem focused. I think we don’t have that deer-in-the-headlights look,&uot; Harkins said. &uot;They’re a little bit more mature about it this season.&uot;

Bad news for Cox’s bunch, which is hoping Block’s pillage through its district play is a negative and not a positive.

Being able to set the latter half of the season on cruise control can create a false sense of self, and St. Mary’s hopes to catch the Bears napping.

&uot;You don’t know how any of that affects a team,&uot; Cox said. &uot;I know their kids gained a lot of confidence in what they were doing by winning by those type of margins.&uot;

Klent Mullikin is in his first year as the starting quarterback for the Tigers. Cox has been most impressed with Mullikin’s management in games.

He is not a very accurate passer with 43 completions in 109 attempts, but Mullikin will not play his teammates out of a game, as evident by his equal interception-to-touchdown ratio at six apiece.

&uot;He’s not a big playmaker, but he does what he has to do,&uot; Cox said.

The same goes for Block, which continues to be repetitive with its drills since before the season began.

&uot;A lot of times I’ve been around coaches that do just enough when it gets to this point,&uot; Harkins said. &uot;We do handoff drills every week and still doing the little bitty things that we were working on during the spring and summer.&uot;

Practice makes perfect, or so the town of Jonesville is hoping. With a stacked lower half of the bracket, the sense of urgency hovering above the Bears is palatable.

&uot;No. 1 would be nice, but I like where we are too,&uot; Harkins said. &uot;We fell on the side of the bracket that I wanted us to, and there are other teams that fell on the opposite side like I wanted to. We can definitely compete all the way if we’re fortunate enough to come away with a win in this game.&uot;