BASILE — Nothing flashy for the Basile Bearcats, just old-school defense on Friday in the second half of its District 5-1A showdown against Oberlin.

The Bearcats (6-1, 4-0) held Oberlin to 88 yards in the second half and turned a close game into a 35-13 win to take sole possession of first place in the district.

“It was just a matter of us being in the right spot,” Basile head coach Kevin Bertrand said. “The only time we felt uncomfortable the whole night with what we were doing was that touchdown they had in the second quarter.

“Other than that, it was a matter of we have to be here or we have to be here. Sometimes we were just a little bit off, but we really didn’t change a whole lot with what we were doing, and it worked.

“Our defense just did a great job of keeping us together and in it in the first half, so we could come out in the second half and do what we did.”

In four district games, Basile has allowed 12.5 points per game.

On Oberlin’s (5-2, 3-1) first drive of the third quarter, Basile’s Christian Bergeron and Kade Sweeney dropped Tigers quarterback Colby McMahon for a 2-yard loss to force a turnover on downs.

The next Tigers drive stalled after linebacker Luke Fontenot blasted through the line like a missile to tackle Noah Carter for a 7-yard loss on third down.

In the first half, Gavin Ardoin broke up a deep pass with 10 seconds left in the second quarter to keep the Tigers from getting a chance to even the score before the break.

Bergeron and Fontenot teamed up for a sack to stop Oberlin at midfield with 4:17 left in the second quarter as the Tigers were never able to get their passing game going.

Ardoin added a 38-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter, ripping the ball away from two defenders just before the goal line.

“They are athletic,” Bertrand said. “They do a good job of getting their guys the ball, and I thought our defensive backs did an outstanding job.

“I don’t know how many completions they had, maybe one or two. I am just super, super proud of our guys and the work they put in. It shows.”

After a pair of first-half fumbles, the Bearcats’ ground game smoothed things out in the second half to turn the defensive battle into a rout. Ashton Deaville and Horace Edwards each topped 100 yards. Edwards scored twice and ran for 135 yards on 20 carries. Deaville had 149 yards and a score on 28 carries.

“Actually, we were running the ball extremely well in the first half,” Bertrand said. “We turned it over a couple of times and really stopped ourselves.

“I don’t think we punted one time tonight. It was just a matter of getting it together and we did. The credit goes to these kids for how hard they work.”

Oberlin tied the score at 7-7 with 7:35 left in the second quarter on a 12-yard run by McMahon, but the Tigers only crossed midfield two more times the rest of the game.

Quarterback Luc Johnson punched in a 2-yard score with 1:17 left in the first half to give the Bearcats the lead for good.

Basile finished with 376 yards of total offense to Oberlin’s 200.

Dominique Eaves led Oberlin with 65 yards on 13 carries.