After systematically dismantling Central Lafourche 37-3 last week with their dominant defense and explosive offense, Destrehan is preparing for one of their toughest district games of the season against South Lafourche.
The Wildcats (7-0, 4-0) stormed out to a 37-0 halftime lead over Central last Friday. Will Mathews got the scoring started with a 39-yard touchdown run, and Peyton Steib set up a touchdown pass from Donovan Isom to Tramaine Armstrong after recovering a fumble deep in Central Lafourche territory. Defensive end Glen Logan and linebacker Malcolm Darensbourg then teamed up to put the Wildcats up 23-0 in the first quarter. Logan broke into the Central Lafourche backfield and forced a fumble that was recovered by Darensbourg, who streaked into the end zone.
In the second quarter, the Wildcats added two more scores on a touchdown run by Karon Taylor and a 2-yard run by Mathews.
The Wildcats struggled offensively in the second half, but Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux said he was partly to blame for his team’s performance in the final two quarters.
“I kind of told the guys to hold up a little bit and not go up-tempo,” he said. “We got into a little lull. Overall though I thought it was a pretty good performance and our kids played hard.”
But the Wildcats won’t be able to let up against their next opponent, who is currently in third place in the District 7-5A. South Lafourche’s only district loss came in a 35-34 shootout to East St. John in the first league game of the season.
Since that point, South Lafourche has gone on a rampage. They beat Terrebonne 42-16, knocked off Central Lafourche 35-14 and then destroyed H.L. Bourgeois 61-22.
Robicheaux said South Lafourche is dangerous because they are hard to prepare for.
“They give you so many motions and formations. Sometimes they use four or five different formations during a single series,” he said. “They do different things all over the field and we are going to have to be prepared to play sound football.”
Last season, South Lafourche finished the regular season with a 9-1 record before falling to Ruston in the bi-district round of the Class 5A playoffs. The catalyst for the offense is running back Jake Williams, who rushed for 1,072 yards last season but has been hurt for much of this year.
Williams, however, is now 100 percent healthy. Last week, he rushed for 239 yards and five touchdowns on only 17 carries against H.L. Bourgeois.
“He’s a good player who runs hard and is tough,” Robicheaux said. “They are probably going to give him the ball a lot to keep our offense off the field. He is real physical and our defense is going to have to be ready.”
On defense, the Tarpons are led by linemen Justin Berry, Mason Boudreaux and Steven Dye. Linebacker Peyton Guidry is also a force for South Lafourche and recorded 102 tackles last year.
Like the Trojan’s offense, Robicheaux said their defense does a lot to confuse opponents.
“They are all over the place,” Robicheaux said. “They switch up between a three-man front, a four-man front and even a five-man front. They blitz from all over.”
Stopping that blitz will be the key to the game, Robicheaux said.
“Our offensive line is going to have to be ready to pick up those blitzes,” he said.
Destrehan will travel to South Lafourche on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Be the first to comment