Malachi Dabney rushed for 150 yards and four touchdowns, Jackson Fields threw three touchdown passes and the Destrehan defense locked things down in the second half as the Wildcats ended Terrebonne’s unbeaten streak with a 41-28 victory at Wildcat Stadium.
“We worked together and made sure we fixed our mistakes,” said Dabney. “I’m just thankful for my linemen. Every time I made a big run it was because of them, my other teammates and my coaching staff.”
Last season, Terrebonne defeated Destrehan at Terrebonne – that was the Wildcats’ first district loss in five years. DHS was well-motivated to avenge that loss.
“It was certainly something we reminded the kids about,” said Destrehan head coach Marcus Scott. “We knew this was going to be tough. Coach (Tyler) Lewis has done such a tremendous job preparing those kids, so we really had to come out and put on a strong performance.”
The first half of this game was a track meet, but Destrehan’s defense stepped up in a huge way from there, holding what’s been a scalding hot Terrebonne (4-1, 1-1) offense this season to just 7 points in the second half.
“We really had to go in and stress executing the gameplan. A couple of those big runs, we didn’t play the proper technique, and we have a very small margin for error against a very good Terrebonne team,” said Destrehan head coach Marcus Scott.
It started with a 3-and-out forced by DHS (3-2, 2-0) to start the half. With the score tied 21-21, the Wildcats went to work on offense. Big runs by Jackson Fields and Malachi Dabney set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Dabney to make it 27-21 – the point after failed, and the lead remained six.
Another stop by the Wildcats came after linebacker Tony Crump identified a screen on third down and made an open field tackle to force another Tigers punt.
Fields and his receivers converted a pair of third downs on the next drive – one to Jaylan Ash and the other to Jabari Mack, who lost his footing but hauled it in from a seated position.
In many ways, this was Mack’s drive – he caught another pass for 7-yards, but broke a tackle and made it into a 15-yard gain. He capped the drive by hauling in a touchdown pass from Fields that made it a 34-21 lead.
Terrebonne stuck around. An Adams first down run on third and 5 from a swinging gate formation set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Alvin Celestin, who broke a tackle and got to the pylon to pull Terrebonne within six.
Terrebonne’s defense stepped up big this time, forcing a Destrehan punt in the middle of the fourth quarter and earning a chance to take the lead with a touchdown. But on a third down that the Tigers had to have. Frank Harding Jr. Intercepted Oliver on a throw downfield with 3:39 left.
“Frank made an outstanding play,” said Scott. “He was in good position. We converted some third downs on us, with (Oliver) being as elusive as he is. We had to put some personnel on the field, get into dime and nickel in some obvious passing situations, and do what we had to so we could get off the field. It was an outstanding play by Frank.”
Destrehan hammered out a first down, then was penalized into a 1st and 15 – that could have been costly, but on the next play Dabney took the handoff, bounced outside and chewed up big yardage. That set up his fourth and final touchdown run of the night – and effectively sealed the win.
On its opening drive of the night, Destrehan struck first on Jackson Fields’ 14-yard touchdown pass to Coryan Armstrong to make it 7-0.
Terrebonne took advantage of a Wildcats’ mistake to tie things up. The Destrehan defense had what appeared to be a stop sealed up in Terrebonne territory – the Tigers sent the punt team on for a 4th and 7 play. But the Wildcats were flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and that turned into a first down – and ultimately a touchdown by Quincy Adams.
Destrehan drove down to answer, with Malachi Dabney punching it in from 2-yards out to make it a 14-7 lead.
But early in the second quarter, Terrebonne made a big pickup on a 3rd and 16 on a screen pass from Owen Oliver to Adams that extended a drive. A draw play to Adams in the redzone went for 6 and tied things up again at 14.
Fields and Dabney connected for a touchdown from 8-yards out to again put Destrehan ahead, but Terrebonne finished off its next drive with Adams’ third score of the night – that drive extended by another third down pickup by Terrebonne, where Oliver picked up a bobbled snap and scrambled for a first down on 3rd and 6.
The first punt of the opening half did not come until the final 10 seconds, and time expired after that Destrehan kick for a 21-21 tie at half.
