For two weeks, Hahnville fell behind early and clawed back before falling short. In Week 3, however, the Tigers finally got the fast start – and victory – they’ve been working for.
Hahnville traveled to face E.D. White and captured a 42-31 victory to move its record to 1-2 this season. The Tigers rushed for more than 200 yards, most of that on the back of Fabian Celestine, who broke loose for two 70-yard gains and rushed for two touchdowns during the course of the game.
The Tigers led 28-24 at halftime. Hahnville’s defense allowed just one second half score, enabling HHS to create some seperation.
Hahnville head football coach Greg Boyne said he and the Tigers knew they were in for a fight. Both teams entered the game with 0-2 records, and neither would be keen on leaving the field with another loss. While this wasn’t one of E.D. White’s most experienced teams of the past few seasons, the Cardinals have long represented a strong program.
“It was huge for us,” said Boyne. “You go back to last year, we lost our last game, so it’s been a little bit of a losing streak. You need something positive, something for the kids to hang their hats on and get that feeling again … for them to remember why they do all the hard work that they do and why we coach them hard and push them the way that we do.”
After two early deficits against 2025 state finalists Shaw and St. Charles Catholic over the past two weeks, Hahnville wanted to get its offense on track much earlier on Friday. Faced with E.D. White’s option offense, getting ahead early would in theory be even more valuable – forcing the Cardinals away from the run.
The only issue with that on Friday was that E.D. White stuck with the run throughout the first half and did so successfully despite a deficit, staying within striking distance.
“With the offense they run, if you can get up a couple of scores on them you can kind of make them uncomfortable, but they do such a good job running the ball that they were able to hang around even once we got up,” Boyne said.
“This was definitely the best start to a game we’ve had offensively. We kind of picked up where we left off last week once we got going. (Quarterback Landen) Teague was on fire from the beginning. Fabian really got loose and made some big runs. Our receivers played well – Aaron (Williams) had a big start. Early James and Kaiden Bran played well again. The offensive line played well. It was a really balanced effort offensively.”
Defensively, Boyne said the Tigers’ tackling needs to improve, but that in the second half the Tigers came up big to get the stops they needed.
