Early season schedule to again test Hahnville on gridiron

For the first time in three off-seasons with his team, coach Nick Saltaformaggio’s Hahnville Tigers will retain both their offense and defensive systems from the prior season. From that standpoint, the coach believes his team is in better position to hit the ground running in September – in theory. That last caveat is there because while the Tigers won’t have to spend time learning and installing a new system, the front part of the schedule is loaded with competition. The Tigers will host Woodlawn-Baton Rouge to begin the season then will quickly hit the road in three consecutive weeks  against the likes of Patterson, Riverside and archrival Destrehan. Hahnville concludes the first half of the season with a home date against St. Thomas More.

Woodlawn was a 4A postseason qualifier last year. Patterson reached the second round in Class 3A. Riverside was a Division III state semifinalist, Destrehan a 5A quarterfinalist and St. Thomas More a Division II finalist.

The three game stretch against Riverside, Destrehan and St. Thomas More, Saltaformaggio believes, will hold the biggest influence over what seed the Tigers ultimately could nail down for a postseason run.

The Riverside game, Saltaformaggio said, is a clash the coach is extremely wary of. The Rebels defeated Hahnville 10-7 in Boutte last year and Saltaformaggio believes Riverside outplayed Hahnville to a greater degree than the score indicates.

“I’m really, really not looking forward to going to Riverside,” Saltaformaggio said. “Not that Destrehan or St. Thomas More don’t scare me … Riverside’s going to be favored when that game comes. That’s a quality football team that’s very, very physical. They controlled the game up front. It felt like they had the ball for 40 of the 48 minutes. We’re going to be tested to say the least.”

Then comes Destrehan, a team that hasn’t lost in the regular season in three years. Saltaformaggio called the Wildcats the measuring stick for not just his team, but for all programs in the New Orleans metro area.

“Nobody’s had the success Destrehan’s had,” Saltaformaggio said. “Right now, they’re still better than we are. I know people don’t like to hear that. (Kohen) Granier is a great quarterback. They lost those guys up front, but at Destrehan, the players keep rolling in.”

Finally, St. Thomas More represents a team that bested Hahnville 52-12 in Lafayette last year.

“In my 34 years of coaching, I’ve never, ever been beat like St. Thomas More beat me last year,” Saltaformaggio said.

This time, the game will be in Boutte, but it still caps a challenging stretch that represented all three of Hahnville’s regular season losses last season.

“You hope to be able to win one or two of those. It will be really difficult to win all three,” Saltaformaggio said. “We were the seventh seed last year with a 7-3 record with a lot of teams that were 8-2 seeded below us. How you schedule is a huge factor.”

The Destrehan game will be Hahnville’s district opener, the St. Thomas More game a non-district contest. After that, Hahnville will play the bulk of its district schedule, hosting Terrebonne (Week 6), Central Lafourche (Week 8) and Thibodaux (Week 10) and traveling to East St. John (Week 7) and H.L. Bourgeois (Week 9).

Saltaformaggio believes East St. John stands a good chance to bounce back after a very down season. Central Lafourche, he said, gave the Tigers their toughest game in their stretch run last year. And Thibodaux boasts one of the state’s elite players in two-way star RB/CB Amik Robertson.

 

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