After needing two overtimes to pick up a win over Hahnville last season, Destrehan had a much easier time of things this year, using a solid defensive effort and an impressive passing game to beat the Tigers 33-7.
Though the final score was lopsided, the Wildcats took a while to get going. Hahnville managed to shut down the Destrehan running game throughout the contest, holding the Wildcats to only 86 yards on the ground. Thirty-three of those yards came on a first quarter run by quarterback Wynrick Smothers that gave the Wildcats a 7-0 lead with 4:02 left in the first quarter.
Destrehan stretched the advantage to 10-0 with a Ryan Rome field goal right before the half expired.
In the second half, a 44-yard interception return by Rufus Porter energized Destrehan and led to an outpouring of points that officially put the game away.
Smothers and receiver Brandon Armstrong were responsible for most of those points, hooking up twice on long touchdown passes.
Smothers connected on 12 of his 20 passes for 152 yards, while Armstrong had seven receptions, including touchdown catches of 20 and 33 yards.
“I was happy with the win,” Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux said. “It was over a Hahnville team that was 3-1 coming into the game and could have easily been 4-0 and it was a huge rivalry game. It’s always big to get a win in a game like that.”
Though he was pleased with the victory, Robicheaux says his team has a lot to work on.
“We are evaluating our team every week and we want to get better every week,” he said. “We are still making a lot of mistakes.”
One area in which Robicheaux hopes to see some improvement is in the running game.
“We need to be more consistent running the ball,” he said. “Hahnville’s game plan was to take the running game away from us, and they did a good job of doing that. Overall though, I like where we’re at right now.”
The win moved the Wildcats to 5-0 on the season and gave them their first district win of the year. Their second should come this Friday when they host winless St. Amant.
The Gators’ defense has given up a lot of points in their first five games – 215 of them to be exact. That’s an average of 43 points a game.
St. Amant lost their first district game of the year last week by way of a 69-35 beat down by East St. John. The previous week, the Gators lost to Woodlawn 52-45.
“They’re 0-5 and their defense is giving up a lot of points,” Robicheaux said. “I’ve heard that they lost 30 players from last year’s team.”
Still though, Destrehan needs to be prepared. Last season, St. Amant finished the year 3-7, but the Wildcats needed a blocked field goal to pick up a win against them.
“That’s what we’ve been telling the team all week,” Robicheaux said. “We have to focus on the game ahead and make ourselves better no matter who we play.”
Be the first to comment