Destrehan wins 47-8, Hahnville falls 41-13
The Destrehan Wildcats opened the season in impressive fashion, blowing out St. James 47-8 on Friday night.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Junior quarterback Donovan Isom looked sharp early, connecting on passes to Rickey Jefferson, Derrick McGee and Alfred Smith to lead his squad down to the three-yard line.
That’s when senior running back Lou’Donovan Wells broke through for the score.
Destrehan’s scoring drive took only 2:05 off the clock.
With the Wildcat defense smothering St. James’ offense, Destrehan got the ball back quickly and made St. James pay. This time, Isom connected with McGee for a 32-yard score to give Destrehan a 14-0 advantage.
From that point on though, Destrehan’s offense struggled while the defense continued to dominate. The Wildcats didn’t score again until under two minutes left in the half. Sophomore running back Will Mathews turned the corner and hugged the left sideline for a 50-yard gain. Two plays later, Mathews scored from four-yards out to give the Wildcats a 21-0 lead.
Destrehan picked up two more quick scores in the third quarter to extend the advantage to 34-0 and Kenny King found the end zone to start the fourth quarter to give the Wildcats a 40-0 lead.
Click here to view pictures from Destrehan vs. St. James
Hahnville 13 Karr 41
On the first play of the game Devante Noil showed the audience at Hahnville why Coach Lou Valdin called him the best player on Edna Karr’s team when he ran in an 83-yard quarterback keeper.
The Tiger’s at one point looked like they may have been on the road to making a comeback when they narrowed the lead 27-13 at the beginning of the second half, but Noil lining up at quarterback, running back and wide receiver racked up a 51-yard touchdown in addition to a few other huge rushing plays to stifle any chance the Tiger’s may have had.
In addition to those large rushes by Noil, the Hahnville defense gave up other long runs on the night including an 80-yard rushing touchdown by Cougar running back Jarrell Bennett.
Despite taking quite a beating the Hahnville defense did have a few bright spots when they forced two fumbles, recovering one, and Gabe Taylor came up with a big interception in Cougar territory that the Hahnville offense unfortunately could not convert.
The defense also largely corralled heralded Cougar tight end Standish Dobard who, although he had a 21-yard receiving touchdown, was quiet most of the night.
On offense the Tigers were largely ineffective. Quarterback Easton Melancon engineered a successful two-minute drill to end the first half with a one-yard rushing touchdown by Lynn Simmons, but on the night both the passing and rushing games suffered.
Melacon threw numerous passes off the mark and when they were on the mark they were sometimes dropped. Similarly Lynn Simmons and Cody Morales were anything but the one/two punch they displayed versus St. James in the jamboree.
Hahnville’s special teams, however, did have some bright spots. Kicker Craig Ford was two-for-two on field goals and converted an extra point after the Tiger’s only touchdown. The punt cover team struggled at first when Edna Karr successfully faked a punt and ran for a first down. But later in the game they would partially block one punt and force the punter to run before he had a chance to kick the ball on another play. They did give up at least one long return in the punting game to the Cougars though.
Overall the night belonged to the Edna Karr Cougars who are coming off a run at the 4A state championship and have a least a few remarkable talents on their side. The Cougars scored four rushing touchdown and two passing touchdowns and held pretty well on defense.
One can only hope Valdin is correct to say the Karr versus Hahnville match-up will be the toughest of the season.
Next week the Hahville Tigers take on the Lutcher Bulldogs at home.
Click here to see photos from Hahnville vs. Karr
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