BATON ROUGE, La. — Preston Bowman’s second touchdown run of the game, a 12-yard run with 3:20 left in the third quarter, turned out to be the game-winner as the Bears shocked the Southern Lab Kittens 20-14 Friday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium on the campus of Southern University.

Block will take on the winner of the Vermillion Catholic-West St. John game next Friday at 7 p.m.

Southern Lab was supposed to have had all the momentum on its side hosting a Class 1A bi-district round game as the No. 11 seed and the co-champion of District 6-1A. But Block was more than up to the challenge.

Bowman, who had 11 carries for 46 yards, scored on a 3-yard run with 9:33 to go in the first quarter, but the extra point was blocked, leaving the Bears with a 6-0 lead. Curdarius Johnson connected with Vashawn Davis on a 31-yard touchdown pass just past the midway point of first quarter to give Block a 12-0 lead.

But the Kittens got back in the game when Terrence White scored on a 12-yard run with 1:05 to go in the first quarter. Delvin Welch’s extra point made it 12-7. They took the lead on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Kameryon Brown to White and Welch’s point-after with 56 seconds to go until halftime.

After Bowman’s go-ahead touchdown, he scored on a 2-point conversion run that gave Block (6-5) the six-point lead. And the defense did what it had to do to preserve the win for the Bears.

The Bears’ ground game was one key factor in the game is it compiled 199 yards. Another factor was the defense, which held Southern Lab (7-4) to 116 yards of total offense and picked off four passes.

The game was marred by a lot of penalties committed by both teams. Block had 13 penalties for 90 yards while Southern Lab was flagged 11 times for 90 yards.