After a gritty win against a physical Dutchtown squad last week, Destrehan head coach Stephen Robicheaux likes where his team is at as they head into district play against Terrebonne on Friday.
The Wildcats trailed for much of the first half against Dutchtown until Will Matthews scored on a 6-yard run to give Destrehan a 6-3 lead right before the break. A costly Destrehan fumble to start the third quarter turned into an easy Dutchtown touchdown, but the Wildcats regrouped after that.
Destrehan retook the lead with a 72-yard run by Kirk Merritt and put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Matthews.
While the offense struggled to get into a rhythm for half the game against Dutchtown, Robicheaux was impressed with his defense’s performance. The Wildcats held Dutchtown to 98 yards and just six first downs.
“I thought the defense played outstanding,” he said. “To limit Dutchtown to under 100 yards is impressive. Dutchtown has some pretty good athletes, but our defense held them and added a couple of interceptions and fumble recoveries. They kept us where we needed to be.”
Robicheaux blamed much of his offense’s inconsistency on Dutchtown’s defense.
“We started slow on offense, but that had a lot to do with Dutchtown’s defense. They are a good football team with a great defensive line and some of the better defensive backs in the state,” Robicheaux said. “We got it figured out in the second half and scored a couple of key touchdowns.”
Robicheaux learned a lot about his team in the win.
Dutchtown is always one of the top teams in the state and the Wildcats were able to pull out the victory despite the fact that they turned the ball over three times and had a punt blocked.
“That’s always a good win when you play a team like Dutchtown,” Robicheaux said. “The big question I had going into the game was whether we could be physical with Dutchtown. We proved that we could.”
The Wildcats will look to continue that physical style of play in their first District 7-5A game against Terrebonne. The Terrebonne Tigers have ridden their high-powered offense to a 2-1 record. They cruised past Redemptorist 48-14 and knocked off Ellender 44-28. Their only loss came in a 25-21 defeat to South Terrebonne.
Terrebonne’s offense is led by junior quarterback Brett Bergeron. In last week’s win over Ellender, Bergeron completed 10 of his 16 passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns.
“Their quarterback does a very good job of throwing the football,” Robicheaux said. “They have scored more than 40 points twice, so they have shown that they are able to move the football. We will have to settle in and stop the run, but their quarterback also does a good job with ball control by using short passes.”
The Tigers return two of their top receivers from last season as well as senior running back Justin Theriot.
Receiver Justin Walls was the offensive star for Terrebonne last week after catching four passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns.
The Tigers only return four starters on defense, but Robicheaux said they have plenty of talent on that side of the ball.
“They have a good defensive end who is a big, strong kid and a linebacker who is very active,” Robicheaux said. “They also have a defensive lineman that causes a lot of havoc in the middle.”
Robicheaux added that Terrebonne lines their linebackers up at different spots all over the field, which could cause a problem for his offense.
“It will be a challenge, but we just have to do what we need to do on offense to be successful,” he said.
And Robicheaux feels like his team will do just that.
“I like where we’re at,” he said. “Offensively we need a little more consistency, but it’s a long year and it’s a process. We just have to keep getting better at everything we do.”
Destrehan will host Terrebonne on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
Be the first to comment