His hope — and that of the Wildcats community — is that it becomes the third team Robicheaux leads to a state championship.
Destrehan (9-0) looks to begin a run to the Superdome Friday night as it hosts No. 32 seed Terrebonne (4-6) in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. That game represents a rematch between the two District 7-5A foes; Destrehan won the first meeting between the teams on Sept. 30, 44-17 at Wildcat Stadium.
Robicheaux said he doesn’t believe the top seed puts any more of a target on the Wildcats back than usual, noting that no matter what seedings say, when it comes to postseason football, every team is fighting to keep their hopes alive.
“Everyone understands it’s a one game setting where the loser is going home,” Robicheaux said. “The best thing about it is it gives you that potential home game if you happen to reach the semifinals. Our kids did a good job. They’ve played nine and won nine, and hopefully we’ll add a few more to that total.”
A postseason rematch of regular season play is something that has become more common in recent years, due in part to the power points system not separating district opponents in early rounds and also to the split of select and non-select schools.
Though Destrehan won the first meeting between his team and Terrebonne convincingly, if given the choice the coach said rematches are not necessarily his cup of tea.
“You never want to play a team a second time,” Robicheaux said. “I like seeing teams that don’t know everything about you. They know what we’re gonna do and we know what they’re gonna do.”
Terrebonne has evolved since the last time the teams played. The Tigers have made a change at quarterback, with sophomore Keshawn James moving over from running back to key the offense. “They’ve been scoring points and kind of added an element offensively with (James) in there,” Robicheaux said. “They probably should have won that game last week against Bourgeois. It’s something different for us to prepare for.”
Since a 48-0 loss to Hahnville, Terrebonne has scored 45, 37, 27 and 37 points in successive games with Lakeshore, East St. John, Central Lafourche and H.L. Bourgeois, going 2-2 in that stretch (wins over Lakeshore and Central Lafourche).
The 44-37 loss to Bourgeois threatened the Tigers’ playoff hopes, but Terrebonne edged the remaining field of teams to qualify as the last team in. Terrebonne entered last week’s game ranked No. 28 in power points, with Bourgeois ranked No. 36. Terrebonne generated 453 total yards last week. 204 of those on the ground, while allowing 453 yards to Bourgeois, 325 of those via the run.
Faced with a Destrehan team that has run the football all season long with success, and given running back Kristian Mosley’s big performances to end the regular season, failure to patch the run defense could lead to another long night for Terrebonne. In the last meeting of the teams, Mosley rushed for 250 yards while John Emery added 140.
Destrehan did not play last week, drawing an open date.
“It’s not what you want, but it is what it is,” Robicheaux said. “We used it to work on fundamentals, which helped us out, and it also allowed guys to get healthy.”
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