Hahnville finding a groove, rocks Thibodaux for 2nd straight win

Dominique Curley races to the edge during Friday's game between Hahnville and Thibodaux.

Two weeks ago, Hahnville stumbled badly against Terrebonne in a loss Hahnville coach Nick Saltaformaggio said “rocked our foundation.” But thanks to a second straight dominant performance, that game is starting to feel like long ago.

The Tigers earned a decisive District 7-5A victory Friday night, rushing for six touchdowns in a 41-7 victory over visiting Thibodaux at Tiger Stadium, suddenly giving life to what was beginning to look like a lost season.

“It just comes down to work,” Saltaformaggio said. “The things we were bad at early, we’re getting better at … we put ourselves behind the eight ball early, but I felt like we had a good football team that just got overwhelmed early in the year. We weren’t a good team early on, but you don’t win a state championship in September. We’ve gotta keep playing hard and see where it gets us.”

Brandon Comardelle led the way for Hahnville (3-4, 1-2) on the ground, rushing for more than 200 yards for the second consecutive week. He racked up 203 yards on 19 carries and punched in two touchdown runs, including the first two HHS scores of the night from 35 and 10 yards out to give Hahnville control of things early with a 14-0 lead after a quarter.

“We’ve just kept working to make ourselves better,” Comardelle said. “(After the Terrebonne game), we talked about how we know we’ll make mistakes, but we have to keep pushing back and move forward every time … our offensive line keep getting better and better each week, and it’s making a difference.”

Comardelle’s back-to-back scores for his team may have inspired teammate Jace Meyers, who responded in kind by scoring Hahnville’s next two touchdowns, the first on a 9-yard run in the second quarter that gave Hahnville a 21-0 halftime advantage, and then from three yards out to make it 28-0 early in the third quarter.

Thibodaux (3-4, 1-3) finally found some room to maneuver against the Hahnville defense later in the third, getting its lone score on Tyren Young’s 24-yard pass to Kyren Lacy for a touchdown to make it 28-7.

But Hahnville quickly answered via Andrew Naquin’s quarterback keeper for a score late in the third quarter, then adding its final touchdown on a Dominique Curley run to round out the night. Curley finished with eight rush attempts for 36 yards.

Special teams and the HHS defense time and time again created three-and-outs, turnovers and short fields for the offense to work with, and the offense indeed took advantage by dominating on the ground and converting those opportunities into touchdowns.

“It was a huge part of what we needed to get done. Anytime you’re able to play on half the field, you have a chance to score a lot of points,” Saltaformaggio said.

The coach also echoed his emerging star at running back, crediting the team’s offensive line for the rapid progress it’s been making. Hahnville rushed for 309 yards on 39 carries against Thibodaux, HHS’ second consecutive week of topping the 300 yard rushing barrier.

“Brandon’s really becoming a very good running back, and our offensive line has gotten infinitely better,” Saltaformaggio said. “It’s the kind of football I like to play … run downhill, shorten the game, play good defense, be good in the kicking game, and you’ll win a lot of games.

Tigers quarterback Andrew Naquin completed four of seven pass attempts for 46 yards, completing balls to Jha’Quan Jackson (2-30), Jonathan Hill (1-12) and Meyers (1-6). Jackson also added 31 yards on the ground as a runner.

 

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