Hahnville players stood in silent disbelief following the final play of Friday night’s second round playoff game with Chalmette.
Despite two go-ahead fourth quarter drives, time ran out on Hahnville before it could make a third a reality – and the season was over.
Landen Teague’s endzone pass to Lance Marshall from the Chalmette 6-yard line was broken up by the Owls’ Jaden Williams and Chalmette advanced to the Division I non-select state quarterfinals, 35-31 winners over Hahnville.
There were five lead changes in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game, with the Tigers’ final drive coming just short of a sixth.
Chalmette will travel to face top-seeded Neville in the quarterfinal round.
“Our guys battled, literally, to the last play,” said Hahnville head coach Greg Boyne. “So, a tough loss … we didn’t get a lot of touches in the second half. They did a good job controlling the ball, similar to the Lakeshore game … we just made too many mistakes to win a second-round playoff game.”
The Owls’ Dana Antoine Jr. hauled in the eventual game-winning touchdown with less than a minute left to play, catching a pass in the back of the endzone off a rollout by quarterback Breez Wilson with 46 seconds left to play.
“We’ve been on the road all year – we only had four home games, so we were used to going on the road,” said Chalmette head coach Jason Tucker. “We believe in our kids. We believe in our program … hats off to my guys, they played their butts off and didn’t quit …we’ve been in close games all year. Our kids kept believing, kept fighting.”
Nobody could fault anyone on either cheering section for believing their team had made the likely game-winning play in several instances in the fourth quarter.
But likely as painful as the final play was for Hahnville (8-3), the Owls’ go-ahead drive packed at least a comparable punch.
The Tigers had taken a 31-28 lead on a 4-yard Calvin Smith touchdown run and the Hahnville defense started the next series with a tackle for loss and then a sack of Wilson by Braylon Crayton that made it 3rd and 16.
After a short completion set up a 4th and 11 with the game in the balance, Wilson lofted a pass up to Williams down the sideline. Williams got his hands on it but could not bring it in between Tiger defenders, but Hahnville was flagged for pass interference – and then a personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play.
“It was a pretty backbreaking play,” Boyne said. “We went from 4th and 11 on their 35, that gets them all the way to about the other 35.”
That set up Chalmette (9-3) on the Hahnville 39, but the Tigers again got the Owls to 4th and 10. This time, Wilson connected with Williams, who evaded defenders and found running room. He gained 32 yards to the Tigers’ 8. Wilson connected with Antoine to put Chalmette ahead.
Hahnville wasn’t ready to end its season, though, and got to work on offense with just 46 seconds to work with. Teague started off with a short pass to Smith and the Tigers were on the move, getting to midfield before Teague fired over the middle for a first down to Marshall at the Owls’ 34 with 22 seconds left. Another pass to Marshall saw the receiver get out of bounds to stop the clock at the Chalmette 19. A pass to Smith over the middle came with a facemask penalty, and with just 3.2 seconds remaining, Hahnville had one final play.
But in the end, Chalmette made the play.
The fourth quarter began with a touchdown run by Wilson with just over 10 minutes left that made it 21-17 – that was Chalmette’s first lead of the night.
With 7:13 left, Teague threw a redzone pass to Kobe Louis over the top to put Hahnville back on top, 24-21.
But after bottling up the dangerous Chalmette return game for most of the night, the Owls got loose. Boyne said during the week that the Owls kick return team could change games, just as it did in their opening round win over Terrebonne – and it struck again at Tiger Stadium as Williams took the kickoff back for a touchdown, putting Chalmette ahead once more.
Hahnville led 14-0 to start the game and 17-7 at halftime.
The loss brings to an end a season that saw Hahnville earn district championship honors, return to the playoffs after a year away and win its first playoff game since 2019.
After the game and amid the emotions of the loss, Boyne gestured to the crowd and reminded his players, while this season’s journey is over, of how far they’d come.
“The seniors should be proud of themselves,” Boyne said. “They fought until the last play. From day one, they’ve done everything we asked them to do. We’re proud of the whole group here. They rekindled something in this community that’s been missing for awhile. We’re not done. We’re not going anywhere. We have a good group of young kids. The seniors gave us a lot. It’s tough losing those guys. But the Tigers are back and we’ll be better next year.”
