HHS falls in rematch with Dutchtown, but future bright

Photo by Ann Taylor

Hahnville senior kicker and punter Brandon Larousse gathers with his teammates after an emotional 35-7 loss to Dutchtown. The Tigers will lose several important players to graduation, but head coach Lou Valdin says the future of Hahnville football is brig

Hahnville couldn't stop Dutchtown backs Eddie Lacy and Kelvin York last week, which caused the Tigers to fall 35-7 in the first round of the 2008 playoffs and abruptly ended their season.

Though neither team managed to score in the first quarter, the Griffins came out on fire in the second, using two touchdowns by York and one by Lacy to pull ahead 21-0. In the third quarter, York found pay dirt for the third time after streaking 35-yards to put Dutchtown up 28-0.

Jared Harrell finally got Hahnville on the board with a touchdown catch in the third quarter, but Dutchtown fired back in the fourth with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Wesley Perkins to Cody Vicknair that put the game out of reach.

“Obviously, I was disappointed with the outcome,” Hahnville head coach Lou Valdin said. “We turned the ball over early and that took us out of our game plan.”

The Griffins racked up 397 yards of offense against Hahnville's usually stout defense, with 344 of those coming on the ground. Meanwhile, the Tigers only had 125 total yards of offense and finished with only seven first downs. Hahnville quarterback Guiseppe Crovetto went to the air often because of the ineffectiveness of the Tiger running attack, but could only connect on five of his 23 passes for 78 yards.

Valdin says that his young team, which is littered with starting sophomores, just didn't realize how difficult the playoffs could be.

“The playoffs are so different for younger guys and they aren’t use to losing and not getting another chance the next week to redeem themselves,” he said. “I told the team that Dutchtown was in the playoffs last year and got almost everybody back from that team. They also were playing at home and were out for revenge.

“You have to raise your level of play in the playoffs, and lots of times, those younger guys just don't understand that.”

And while the Tigers failed to get past the first round, Valdin is proud of how they played throughout the season.

“I thought they played hard all year long even though we made a lot of mistakes because we are so young,” he said. “The future of Hahnville football is very bright.”

The reason for that optimism is because of all the experience those young players gained this past year.

“That's going to be really big for us next year,” Valdin said. “We just have to work on fundamentals because there is nothing like gaining experience.”