SLIDELL – The West St. John Rams traveled to Slidell on Friday to take on the 4-A Salmen Spartans. The Rams were challenged with stopping Spartan’s playmaker Mikell Marco.

Salmen and Marco proved to be too much as the Spartans defeated the Rams 31-20.

West St. John grabbed the early lead 6-0 with a 75-yard touchdown run by Wantrell Williams. The Spartans would come right back with a 60-yard touchdown pass from Mikell Marco to Corey Wood for the 7- 6 lead, and Marco scored again with a Marco 8-yard run to extend the lead to 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.

The West St. John defense had trouble slowing the Spartan offense as they scored another touchdown on a 71-yard Marco run in the second quarter for the 21-6 lead.

The Rams came back in the second quarter when Wantrell Williams scored his second touchdown of the night on a 15-yard touchdown run to lead to 21-12. Salmen added a Triston Pugmire field goal to make the score 24-12 at halftime.

Salmen scored first in the second half to extend their lead to 31–12 with a Marco 3-yard touchdown run. West St. John scored late in the third quarter with a Williams 16-yard touchdown run to close out the scoring as Salmen pulled out the win 31–20.

The Rams will return home next week to host Country Day.