For more than three quarters, Destrehan suffered a scare at East St. John Friday night. But because it closed strong, its unbeaten streak rolls on.
DHS trailed 20-13 at halftime and 20-19 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but ultimately outscored ESJ 26-0 in the second half en route to a 39-20 District 7-5A victory over its longtime River Parishes rival.
“At halftime, the one thing I talked about was that we just played the worst half of football that I’d seen in a long time at Destrehan High School and we’re only down seven,” Destrehan coach Stephen Robicheaux said. “It was just one of those games where everything is seemingly going against you. We were very undisciplined at points. After halftime, we seemed to refocus. Our defense stepped up and we figured some things out.”
Destrehan (6-0, 3-0) missed a 30-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, missing the chance to take the lead. But after an errant ESJ punt traveled just six yards, DHS took over in ESJ territory, where quarterback J.R. Blood found Mike Young for a go-ahead touchdown to make it 25-20.
“We made some adjustments. We started to take what they were giving us, taking the short passes,” Robicheaux said.
After the teams traded punts, Destrehan linebacker Jonathan Duhon intercepted ESJ quarterback Marquise Darensbourg to set his offense up with a short field. John Emery took advantage, scoring on a 20-yard run to make it 32-20 with four minutes left.
DHS added a finishing touch late when Terrell Chopin intercepted a pass and turned it into a pick six touchdown to make it 39-20.
Darensbourg, who went unbeaten as Destrehan’s quarterback in 14 starts during his sophomore season before transferring to East St. John prior to the 2015 season, scored twice on first half runs and threw a touchdown pass to Javon Antonio. Darensbourg played through injury to lead his team Friday.
“Darensbourg’s a warrior,” Robicheaux said. “The way he played tonight, playing with a hurt arm, it was truly amazing.”
East St. John (2-4, 1-2) led 13-0 early in the game before Destrehan tied things up on Blood’s touchdown passes to Shane Wright and Chancey Cothren. East St. John took a seven-point lead at halftime on a Darensbourg run. Emery scored early in the second half to cut the lead to one, but a missed extra point kept ESJ ahead.
“East St. John, we knew, is a better team than they were last year,” Robicheaux said. “They did some things that gave us difficulty and a lot of credit to them. We had to get some things cleaned up, but credit to our coaches and players for our execution in the second half to turn things around and get another district win.”
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