In stark contrast to the D3 Select game, the scoreboard did not light up quite as much in the first half between Jena and Sterlington. TJ Burch did score on the first Panther drive after they got down towards the goal line, but the rest of the first quarter was a clinic on hard blocking and even harder tackling. Jena used their two running backs Sedrick Wilson and Daniel Hatcher, but quickly looked to get Zadrien Cooper involved in the pass game as well, after Sterlington stopped a few run plays. Jena was able to get a touchdown from Wilson and trailed 7-6. As they have all season, Jena would be going for two each time they scored.
The second quarter went by even faster than the first, with Jena able to recover a fumbled Sterlington snap and steal back a possession. Deuce McPherson continued to roll out on pass plays and got a big one when he hit Cooper for a 74-yard highlight touchdown catch to begin a key drive and give Jena a lead going into intermission, as both teams went the final 8 minutes without a score.
Sterlington got the ball to start the third quarter, and TJ Burch went right back to work scoring another touchdown from 37 yards away. The Giants fumbled on a run play trying to answer, and Sterlington picked it up and took back over, eventually getting Xavier Rawls-Stromile loose, and he juked a few defenders and scored a 21 yard TD run as the third quarter wound down.
The fourth quarter was when Sterlington cranked this up and took the game for themselves. The Panthers intercepted McPherson twice on consecutive possessions and returned them for scores, one by Devyn Downs and one by TJ Burch. Those two scores seemed to take the air out of any Jena comeback, and while Adrian Sharp got one more touchdown catch with under a minute left, the celebration had begun for the Sterlington Panthers as they wrapped up their second consecutive title.
