A suffocating defensive effort by Mandeville resulted in Hahnville falling into an 0-2 hole to start the season, following the host Skippers’ 31-5 victory over the Tigers on Friday.
Mandeville’s Isaiah Baham scored two touchdowns and Nate Sheppard added another to pace their squad’s offense. Hahnville fell behind 17-3 early on and never recovered.
“First of all, credit to Mandeville – that’s a really good football team that probably wins 8, 9, 10 games,” said Hahnville head coach Daniel Luquet. “They came out and punched us in the mouth. We lost the field position battle all night … we couldn’t sustain drives.”
A year ago, this was a 42-41 Tiger win in a wild shootout in Boutte, highlighted on the Mandeville side by a six-touchdown game by Sheppard.
This time, Hahnville (0-2) was able to much more effectively corral the explosive back, but other Skippers were able to produce with the opportunities his presence created.
“Sometimes, a kid like that gets loose like he did last year, and sometimes you run into a team trying to take him away and other guys step up,” Luquet said.
Short fields ultimately doomed Hahnville, as Mandeville’s average starting field position began nearly at mid-field, helping propel the Skippers (2-0) to their second win.
“You aren’t going to be successful if you aren’t making a team go 65, 70 yards to score,” Luquet said.
Hahnville has been a team that historically gets stronger as the season goes on in recent years, often in part thanks to a difficult pre-district schedule that prepares the team.
But lopsided losses in each of the first two weeks are unfamiliar ground and a mental test a young Tigers team will have to pass.
“We have a group of really good kids who work hard. It’s going to be a day-by-day process of getting better,” Luquet said. “We have to do a better job of getting guys in position to make plays. And we need some guys who have been around the program and starting multiple years to step up their game a little and help get those guys who are out there for the first time to grow into those roles, in order to get this thing back on track.
“It’s two games. We have eight more. But at the end of the day, we’re still Hahnville. We’ve got to come out and attack the practice week and give ourselves a chance to win on Friday night.”
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