Wildcats must limit mistakes to get past East St. John

Destrehan defensive lineman Joe Sharp dives in to help make a tackles against John Ehret.

For the second straight week, Destrehan allowed a weaker opponent to hang around in the first half due to mistakes before righting the ship in the second half to cruise to a big victory.

But the Wildcat’s won’t be able to commit those mistakes and come out on top against Friday’s opponent East St. John.

In Destrehan’s 42-24 win over John Ehret last week, the Wildcats jumped out to a quick 15-0 lead in the first quarter only to see Ehret take a 16-15 lead in the second. Destrehan got things together before the half, turning a turnover into a touchdown and converting a 46-yard pass from Donovan Isom to Michael Smith into another score to take a 28-16 lead into the break.

In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats put John Ehret away for good with two more scores.

"I don’t think we enjoyed much success," Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux said. "We had a nice lead and then the wheels fell off. Once against we let another team hang around because of turnovers. We need to eliminate those mistakes."

While Robicheaux wasn’t exactly pleased with his team’s performance, he did like how his squad responded in the second half.

"The offensive line played good and the defense played well (in the second half) so overall we are pleased to get a win," he said.

Destrehan (4-2, 2-0) is currently tied with rival Hahnville for the District 8-5A lead with both teams perfect in league play so far. But the Wildcats will face their toughest district opponent of the season on Friday.

East St. John (2-4, 1-1) lost to Hahnville 26-16, but outgained the Tigers in the game, finishing with 316 yards to Hahnville’s 161.

Like Destrehan, East St. John was plagued by turnovers, with three second half interceptions by ESJ quarterback Leonard Davis paving the way to the Tiger win.

If you take away the turnovers Davis proved dangerous. He passed for 234 yards and scored two touchdowns on the ground against Hahnville. East St. John receiver Jared Jackson also finished with 130 yards on eight catches.

The success of the East St. John offense does have Robicheaux concerned.

"Their quarterback does a great job of running the offense and they have good athletes all over the field," he said. "Their running back does a good job and their offensive line gets on their blocks and holds them, so we are going to need to control the line of scrimmage."

On defense, Robicheaux said East St. John is extremely aggressive.

"They are physical and they come from everywhere – they blitz from all over," he said. "Our success on offense is going to come down to whether we can pick those guys up and block them."

But the winner of the game will likely be the team that has the fewest mistakes.

"I was talking to (East St. John coach Phil) Banko and we agreed that the team that commits the least amount of turnovers is going to come out on top," Robicheaux said. "We have a lot of youth and inexperience and we are making a lot of silly mistakes. We can’t stay young all season, we need to be consistent."

Destrehan will travel to take on East St. John on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.