The Hahnville Tigers enter the season as the No. 2 team in Class 5A, and looked every bit the part last week by dismantling St. James 21-6 in the Ed Reed Jamboree. Star running back Alfred Blue showed why he is considered one of the best backs in the state, shredding St. James for 104 yards and dragging three defenders into the endzone for the first touchdown of the game. Junior quarterback Brian Ensminger took over from there and connected on 9 of his 10 passes for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Hahnville head coach Lou Valdin couldn’t help but be pleased by the offensive execution.
“I thought we ran the ball well and had good pass protection,” he said. “I was pleased with the quarterback going 9-for-10 in his first major action.
“He spread the ball around and made good decisions.”
But it wasn’t just the offense that earned Valdin’s praise. He also thought his defense played well against the run and ran to the ball well. In fact, the only thing Valdin was concerned about was that his running backs were tackled behind the line of scrimmage a couple of times.
“That was discouraging,” he said. “You never like to run the ball for negative yardage.”
While the Tigers were able to take control early against St. James, they will be facing a completely different offensive and defensive philosophy when they take the field Friday night.
John Ehret finished the 2008 season with a 5-4 record, losing 34-10 to St. Paul’s in the first round of the state playoffs. This year’s squad returns only three starters from that team and is inexperienced on both sides of the ball.
Ehret will likely use two quarterbacks this season – senior Kris Howard, who will also see time at receiver and defensive back, and junior Curtis Ashford. The only other certainty is Evander Poole, who has started for three years and will play at middle linebacker and on the defensive line.
“Ehret runs a much different offense and defense than St. James,” Valdin said. “Ehret is similar to Destrehan on offense and likes to throw the ball around the field. Defensively, St. James played zone while Ehret plays man and likes to blitz on every play.”
But the biggest difference between last week and this week is that the Tigers will be playing for 48 minutes.
“That will be huge,” Valdin said. “Last week’s game was only 30 minutes so that’s going to make a difference.”
Still though, Valdin and his Tigers will be glad to be opening up the season from home.
“It’s big for us because we are familiar with the field and the surroundings,” he said. “That should be a bid advantage for us.”
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