Hahnville defense faces tough task against high-scoring East St. John

The Hahnville defense
The Hahnville defense will need to play one of their best games of the season in order to slow East St. John’s Xavier Lewis, who has committed to LSU.

After an up and down first half against Terrebonne last week, Hahnville appears to be settling into an offensive groove heading into Friday’s game against East St. John.

The Tigers racked up more than 500 yards of total offense in their 59-35 victory over Terrebonne that improved the team to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in district play.

“Our team played well—we have a lot of good players, and as long as we’re scoring points that’s a good thing,” Hahnville head coach Nick Saltaformaggio said of the victory.

Tiger sophomore running back Davonte Clark, who scored two touchdowns against Terrebonne, was named offensive player of the week after his breakout game. Clark adds another weapon to the Tiger offense.

“We were working to get him into the offense all year,” Saltaformaggio said. “It took him a little while, but he’s a tremendous talent.”

Clark’s performance wasn’t the only one, however, that stood out. Drew Dunn also scored two touchdowns, including a 40-yard dash to the endzone. Devonte’ Cravin scored one touchdown and made a number of key plays on the ground.

Though the ground game played an important role in the win, Hahnville is clearly placing a little more faith in quarterback Austin Perrin. Perrin threw three touchdowns last week. After a run-heavy first half, Hahnville came into the first possession of the second half with a pass-heavy attack that ended in a touchdown.

“[Perrin] is a sophomore, so we don’t want to put him in a lot of bad positions,” Saltaformaggio said, “but he can throw well and we have guys who can catch.”

The defense also came up big in last week’s victory, limiting Terrebonne to only one touchdown in the second half. Defensive player of the week Payton Roberts finished the game with an interception returned for a touchdown, in addition to his eight tackles and two assists.

Saltaformaggio said that Hahnville’s defense would be tested in this week’s matchup against East St. John. In spite of a good second half, Hahnville’s defense made a number of mistakes early against Terrebonne that included several costly penalties.

Saltaformaggio said he expects another high-scoring game on Friday when his Tigers travel to take on East St. John.

“Both of these teams can score a lot of points,” he warned.He said the balanced run attack of Clark, Cravin and Dunn will figure heavily into a matchup against East St. John’s four-star playmaker Xavier Lewis. Saltaformaggio called Lewis “one of the top players in the state.”

Though recruited at the cornerback position, Lewis also takes snaps at running back and quarterback, scoring the overtime touchdown in East St. John’s victory against Central Lafourche.  The multi-faceted player has nearly 1,000 yards rushing and passing over his last six games.

Lewis committed to LSU in July.

East St. John also has Tulane-committed running back Nigel Anderson, who has more than 500 yards rushing on the year. Anderson rushed for 178 yards on 16 carries in his team’s 49-28 win over H.L. Bourgeois last week that kept East St. John perfect in district play with a 3-0 record.

“[East St. John] is traditionally a very good football program,” Saltaformaggio said. “We’re going to have to take care against them.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at East St. John.

 

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