Unlike the rest of Hahnville’s 2025 opponents, McMain – the Tigers opponent this Friday night – does not represent a rematch from a game played last season.
The scheduled Week 2 matchup between Hahnville and McMain last season was cancelled due to Hurricane Francine, leaving each team with just nine regular season games.
The Mustangs struggled last season, going 1-8. The Mustangs fell last week to Belle Chasse, 61-0, and will travel to Tiger Stadium this week as heavy underdogs again.
They bring a spread offense to the field, with plenty of empty sets with no running back in the backfield.
“What they do is a little different, but it’s good for us to see it now,” Hahnville head coach Greg Boyne said. “We’ll see it down the line. Destrehan does it a little bit, East St. John, Terrebonne, but overall not a lot of people do it.”
Defensively, Boyne notes McMain is very similar in its front to Booker T. Washington, both operating out of a base of four linemen and two linebackers.
“But on the back end, they play more zone than man, that’s the big difference from the Booker T. game,” said Boyne. “Coming off a team that played a lot of man, it’s a change up.”
For Hahnville, this week is about stacking another night of quality reps and strong play. Boyne said last week that after Hahnville’s jamboree loss to St. James, the Tigers were emphasizing more work with the starting offense and defense against one another in practice. Boyne believes that helped sharpen things up for last week’s season opener.
Last week’s 43-6 win over Booker T. Washington saw some standout performances from Tiger players, led by Fabian Celestine’s 4-touchdown night.
Celestine was dominant. Three of his touchdown runs were scored on the ground and he housed a screen pass for his fourth and final one of the night. All four touchdowns were scored in the first half – in fact, Celestine scored three times during a span of four minutes and 25 seconds late in the first half. He finished with 116 rushing yards on just six carries and 42 receiving yards on two catches.
It was a monster performance for the junior running back, who late last season suffered a serious injury to his leg – a tib/fib fracture that ended his 2024 season, one that was seeing him show quite a bit of promise as the primary backup to then-Tigers star Calvin Smith.
Celestine worked hard to get back to form. On Friday, he showed exactly what that form looks like – tough running between the tackles and the kind of game-breaking long speed that can change a game at a moment’s notice.
“It was just a mindset thing. I needed to just get the injury out of my head,” said Celestine.
He added with a smile, “Four touchdowns – to be honest, I was just aiming for two, and I got four. That’s crazy. Just have to keep working, keep pushing. I guess next (game) I’m trying to get five.”
Boyne said to see Celestine have a game like that coming off of his injury was exciting for everyone.
“We only ran 20, 21 plays with our starters, and he scored four times on six touches – that’s pretty good,” said Boyne. “Four touchdown nights are rare at any level.”
Of course, blocking also plays a huge role in a statistical effort like this. Hahnville replaced all five of its 2024 offensive line starters following the graduation of a talented senior class. Boyne called the new group a pleasant surprise in how quickly they’ve built chemistry and Friday showed some of those results in a big way.
Starting center Lance Ranatza is joined by left tackle Kirk Bourgeois, left guard Kenneth Hebert, right guard Frederick Downing Jr., and right tackle Ja’ron Myles.
“It’s one of the things that when we sat down and looked at how we wanted to build the program, we emphasized sub-varsity – anybody who wasn’t a starter was going to play (junior varsity or freshman), for at least a half to get some reps. And that’s led to this group being one that’s already played together for the most part.
“A couple of them were on the freshman team, but they did play some JV, and I think the chemistry with that group is a little more advanced than a team bringing out five new starters. They got good reps … I think all of it carries over.”
He also gave a nod to the strong blocking on the perimeter by the team’s wide receivers.
Defensively, the Tigers’ first team allowed no points in their time on the field. Raymond Williams played a big part in that. He recorded two sacks and recovered a fumble in the first half and overall spent a tremendous amount of time in the Booker T. backfield.
“We want to be better than last year, to fix our mistakes from last year,” said Williams. “That (playoff) loss to Chalmette made us look at a lot of things. We learn from our mistakes and get better and better each day.”
Boyne has called Williams the leader of the defense and one of the vocal, emotional leaders of the team as a whole.
“I want to bring that energy that spreads to everyone on our team out there on the field,” Williams said. “I love this sport and love being out here and being able to play again.”
As far as the defense as a whole, Boyne said the Tigers tackled better on Friday than a week prior, which was a primary point of emphasis entering the opener.
“I thought we tackled – we charted one, maybe two missed tackles with the varsity group,” said Boyne. “We wrapped up better, and we’d like to see that continue this week and going forward.”
