Leading 24-0 in the second quarter of its opening round playoff matchup at Tiger Stadium, it appeared Hahnville might coast into round two.
The rest of the way, Slidell made sure that task would be anything but easy, and a furious comeback ensured. But Hahnville is indeed marching on following a 52-39 victory at Tiger Stadium.
No. 11 seed HHS (9-2) is headed to face No. 6 Parkway next Friday night, after the Panthers defeated No. 27 Covington 51-30.
Landen Teague rushed for a touchdown and tallied four touchdown passes in the win, with Kevias Singleton hauling in two. Al-Jarreau Walker intercepted two passes and returned one of those for a touchdown.
Hahnville led 24-0 in the game, but Slidell punched back to get within five at 31-26 at one point. HHS regrouped and closed out the win – albeit, in a bit more dramatic fashion than HHS head coach Greg Boyne would have liked after that strong start, but his team is moving on to round two for the second straight season.
“Up 24-0, and all year we’ve preached about finishing. We made some mistakes, we stalled and let them back in the game,” said Boyne. “That’s disappointing, but you survive and advance. Whatever you have to do to win a playoff game, you do it.”
Although Slidell (6-5) made a strong push, Boyne said he didn’t have a sense his players panicked. Hahnville jumping back out ahead by 19 in the fourth quarter would seem to back that thought.
“We lost some discipline, which I thought was disappointing. But I didn’t think we panicked,” Boyne said.
Singleton was among the heroes in this one, with both of his touchdown receptions coming in the second half – and both in the face of the Slidell comeback.
“He’s been playing well all year. We know we can go to him. We can go to Bennett. We can go to (Aaron Williams). And late when we needed to run it, we were able to run it,” said Boyne.
Hahnville has been getting off to fast starts in games, and they brought the playoff crowd to their feet in Boutte early in this one. Teague connected deep with Bennett Naquin for a 42-yard touchdown that made it 7-0 on Hahnville’s first possession.
After a stop, the Tigers scored again on a Teague keeper to push the lead to 14-0.
A 32-yard Myles Borey field goal made it 17-0, and a pretty over the top pass from Teague to Aaron Williams in the corner of the endzone made it 24-0.
All the while, the Hahnville defense was suffocating, and Slidell found few answers – until a deep bomb from quarterback Ricky Williams III to Michael Thompson set Slidell up in the red zone. Williams found tight end Jeremiah Birdlow for a 15-yard touchdown, making it 24-6 after Walker blocked the extra point attempt.
Hahnville took an 18-point lead into half, but Slidell found something to build on. Hahnville also made a few mistakes along the way. A pair of personal foul penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct equaled a 30-yard pickup for Slidell, which made HHS pay immediately when Williams faked a QB draw before finding an open Birdlow for the second time, making it 24-12. The two-point try was no good.
Hahnville scored immediately in response, Teague first finding Naquin downfield for 30 yards before connecting with Singleton for a 20-yard touchdown pass to make it 31-12.
Slidell pushed back. Jakwan Jones scored on a short touchdown run and then found the endzone again on the 2-point conversion to make it 31-20 midway through the third quarter.
Williams found his groove at this point. A deep shot to Carlos Flemings Jr. set up another touchdown run by Jones, with no conversion to make it 31-26.
There was urgency for Hahnville to score to head off the visitor’s comeback. And again, Teague and Singleton answered the call. After a long touchdown pass to Naquin was called back for holding, Teague immediately went deep once again, finding Singleton for six for the second time in the second half, this time on a 50-yard touchdown pass to make it 38-26 early in the fourth quarter.
“When the play was called, I knew I had to go out and dominate and just put my team back up, get the momentum back for us,” said Singleton.
It was officially game on between two locked-in offenses, but Slidell suffered a significant loss on its ensuing drive. Williams, who had found his groove after a slow start, was sacked by Awyne Williams and suffered an injury on the play.
After being helped to the sideline, he was relieved by backup Stanley Lange, who was intercepted by Walker on his first pass attempt deep down the sideline – Walker found room to operate and also a group of very willing blockers, and scored to give Hahnville a 45-26 lead – and exactly the breathing room HHS needed.
Lange engineered two touchdown drives from there, and Hahnville one more – Lange found Fleming twice for touchdowns, while Celestine punched in Hahnville’s final score. But Slidell never got closer than two scores down again.
“We just knew that we’re not trying to go home,” said Singleton of getting the win. “We’ve still got a lot that we want to do.”
