Destrehan hasn’t lost a regular season game on the field since 2012, with most of those wins coming in a lopsided fashion.
Two district challengers off to hot starts are all that stand between the Wildcats and a perfect 9-0 regular season — Destrehan will have a bye in week 10 — with H.L. Bourgeois and Thibodaux on the horizon. Bourgeois is up first, as the Braves (5-2, 1-2) host Destrehan (7-0, 4-0) this Friday night.
One of the more challenging aspects of preparing to face H.L. Bourgeois, Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux said, is the fact that the Braves run their offense from two completely different base sets: a double-slot option and a shotgun spread.
“You have to be prepared to face both,” Robicheaux said. “And, obviously, it’s worked for them given their results. You can’t just prepare for one type of offense, or you’re left exposed. They do a good job in both (offensive attacks), so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
The Braves have scored 28 points or more in six of their seven games this season, only failing to reach that mark in a 14-7 loss to Central Lafourche on Oct. 2, the team’s first defeat of the season.
Bourgeois defensive end Kristyown Dalbany is among the team’s stop-unit anchors, a player Robicheaux said had a notably high-motor.
“Behind him, they’ve got a group of linebackers who are playing real well as a unit,” Robicheaux said. “They fly to the football. In the secondary, (Tevyn Johnson) looks like a real good player.”
That Bourgeois defense has been a difficult matchup for most every team this season, but like the offense, there’s been a single bump in the road. The Braves allowed 21 points or less in each of the first six weeks of the season, but in last week’s home game against Thibodaux, things changed in a 49-28 loss. Thibodaux rushed for 425 yards in its victory.
Last week, Robicheaux noted his team had difficulty running the ball as well as its’ been accustomed, especially up the middle. Thibodaux’s success may portend good things are on the horizon in that area, as tailbacks Karon Taylor and Kristian Mosley could take advantage.
But one thing is for sure: a lack of intensity won’t be the problem, as Robicheaux will see to it. The coach was not happy with the competitive fire displayed by his team in last week’s homecoming game win over Central Lafourche, and he said his team must show something resembling the effort level from the first six wins of the season.
“It was a little better in the second half,” Robicheaux said. “But I take full responsibility for it. We didn’t have them ready to play, really, for the first time all year. I have to do a better job getting them ready to go. I think we’ll be OK.”
Bourgeois holds wins over South Terrebonne, Ellender, South Plaquemines, Westgate and East St. John. Each Braves win has come by double-figures.
Last week, Central Lafourche (4-3, 1-2) gave the Wildcats a tough matchup in the first half — a Hunter Breit field goal extended what was a 7-point lead to 10 just as the second quarter ended. But a pair of second half touchdowns and a Wildcats defense that locked down CLHS put things out of reach.
Tramaine Armstrong scored two touchdowns and John Williams added another to account for Kohen Granier’s three touchdown passes. Karon Taylor added a rushing score.
The night’s big momentum play came in the second quarter, when a deep Granier pass was tipped into the arms of Williams, who did the rest en route to a 52-yard touchdown.
“That play got us going a little bit,” Robicheaux said. “We were struggling running the football up the middle like we had been, and we needed something to create some separation.”
Taylor scored a one-yard touchdown to cap Destrehan’s first possession of the second half. Granier’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Armstrong, the receiver’s second scoring reception of the night, put it away.
“We’ve played seven and won seven, and you can’t do more than that,” Robicheaux said. “So I’m happy in that regard, but we need to be getting better and better each week, and we have some work to do before our next game.
“Our defense played very well in the second half and we were able to put up a couple of scores to put things away. But I didn’t like our intensity level. I hope our guys enjoyed their homecoming, but at the end of the day, we lost some focus and we need to get it back.”
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