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RESERVE — Friday night will showcase River Parish football at its finest as the undefeated East St. John and Destrehan Wildcats go head-to-head for the district championship.

There’s a lot hinging on this game as the regular season draws to a close and both teams look to boost their positions in the state power rankings. In this week’s combined 5A power rankings, the two schools are nearly evenly matched, with East St. John in the No. 7 spot with a 13.580 compared to No. 8 Destrehan’s 13.280.

East St. John will be challenged by Destrehan’s stellar defense, which has only allowed 27 points across eight games this season. The most points the DHS Wildcats have given up in a single game was 10 last Friday against Sulphur. The Fighting Wildcats offense has been just as explosive, totally more than 40 points every game this season, three of which have been shutout wins.

Last Friday, Destrehan’s senior quarterback Jai Eugene Jr. put on a show in Sulphur, contributing four touchdowns to the 49-0 win against the Tors. East St. John also managed to keep the season record unblemished last Thursday with a 35-12 win on the road against Terrebonne. According to ESJ Coach Brandon Brown, Yashua Mitchell did an excellent job commanding the offense, and running back George Martin has a very strong performance.

Brown views East St. John and Destrehan as two evenly matched teams.

“When we talk about Destrehan and East St. John, this is the way it should be every year. To both come into this game undefeated is a tough task. This is big-time football for both schools and both communities,” he said. “They are very physical. They run the ball well, and they have a good quarterback who throws the ball well. So do we. I think offensively, we’ve been explosive at times, we’ve run the ball consistently, and we’ve hit the big plays in the passing game. Both defenses have played solid all year long. Destrehan’s defense has not given up much, so it’s going to be challenging for us to go in and move the football to make this a real competitive game.”

Friday night’s game will be a pink-out at Joe Keller Stadium in Reserve in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Next week is the final installment of the regular season. East St. John will host Holy Cross, and Destrehan will challenge Thibodaux at home.