Wildcats ready for showdown with No. 1 ranked Lutcher

After two straight losses, the Destrehan Wildcats have started a new winning streak.

The Wildcat defense only allowed John Ehret 50 yards of offense, and ran all over the Patriots on the ground to clinch a 35-6 victory last week.

“Anytime you can hold a 5A team to 50 yards of offense, your pleased,” Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux said. “We played really well defensively, but I thought we also played well in the other phases of the game. I thought our quarterback played well, our running backs looked good and our line was good.

“Special teams was also huge for us.”

Even without leading rusher Marshall Charles, who is lost for the season with a torn ACL, Destrehan managed plenty of yards on the ground. Senior Henry Lenox, who recently returned from an ankle injury, rushed for 61 yards on 13 carries. Kevin Smith added 59 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.

“When we went up by 20, we just wanted to run the ball every play,” Robicheaux said. “We felt we could run on them and we did a good job there.”

Though the Wildcats got back on track against Ehret, they will be faced with a tough challenge this Friday when they travel to Lutcher to take on the No. 1 team in 4A.

Led by Gavin Webster, the Bulldogs have been an offensive juggernaut this season. In their four victories this year, Lutcher has scored 172 points. Included in that total is a 42-34 double-overtime win over Hahnville and a 69-37 victory over Warren Easton.

So far this season, Webster is averaging 124 yards on the ground and 187 through the air.

“Webster is probably the best pure athlete we will face and we have already played a lot of good ones thanks to our schedule,” Robicheaux said. “He's going to get his yards, we just have to contain the other guys.”

Those other guys include receiver Jarvis Landry, who has 21 receptions for 310 and five touchdowns this year and running back Daniel Taylor, who averages 80 yards per game on the ground.

Lutcher also has a dominant secondary, which could present problems for the Wildcats.

“Defensively, they have a really good secondary and we are going to try to throw the ball on them,” Robicheaux said. “They play man-to-man, so our receivers are going to have work to get open.”

While the Bulldogs have been impressive, the Wildcats do have one advantage against Lutcher this season that other teams haven't had. They have played them before.

Though Lutcher beat Destrehan 25-0 in the jamboree to kick off the season, Robicheaux said his team had plenty of miscues, which have hopefully been corrected.

“We made a lot of mistakes against them in the jamboree, but we feel like we are a better team on both offense and defense than we were at that point,” he said.

And the Wildcats will have to prove that on the road.

“It's going to be a great atmosphere,” Robicheaux said. “We are going against the No. 1 team in 4A and it's going to be a great game.”