Two onside kick recoveries in the second quarter that could have sparked Westgate High School to a big lead in its District 4-4A football game Thursday against Rayne High instead resulted in only one touchdown and a 14-7 lead that was quickly negated by an opportunistic RHS team in a 28-14 win over the homestanding Tigers.

Rayne stopped Westgate after the second onside kick on a fourth-and-10 play from the 33 and needed only four plays to get the tying score. The Wolves returned an interception for a touchdown on Westgate’s next possession to take the lead and tacked on another score with a three-play scoring drive on their next possession for the 14-point margin that held up the rest of the way.

“When you take chances against a team like that, you’ve got to capitalize on it,” WHS coach Ryan Antoine said of the onside kicks, one a bouncer recovered by Cartez Joseph and the other a pooch kick between the first and second lines of the Rayne return team that Jansen Mayea snared. “That was kind of our thing all night. We go out there and don’t get points off that (second onside kick), then we come right back and give points.

“We had a chance to get a two-touchdown lead and make a statement, we march the ball right downfield and don’t get any points out of it then come back and give up a score.”

That’s been the Tigers’ story the last month, he said, failing to capitalize on chances, and the result has been four straight losses in District 4-4A that dropped Westgate to 4-5 overall and 0-3 in district. Rayne improved to 7-1 and 3-1.

The Wolves jumped out on the strength of their wing-T running game that gouged WHS for 232 yards in the first half. 

Tailback Trent Winbush had 150 yards and a touchdown on seven carries in the half and Darien Harmon added 72 yards and two touchdowns on six rushes.

“Simple mistakes,” Antoine said. “We were able to make an adjustment at halftime and stop it, but it was just too little, too late. When you have chances against a team like that that runs the clock, you’ve got to get up on them. That’s our motto, if we get up on them early, we have a chance to do some things.”

Those big yards included carries of 62 yards on Winbush’s first carry and a 53-yard scoring run in the second quarter to  make it a two-TD game. Winbush finished with 180 yards on 19 carries and Harmon added 125 on 14 totes, including a 34-yard run on his first carry of the second half.

“You give up a three-touchdown quarter and it’s hard,” Antoine said. “Lately our biggest issue has been giving up defensive touchdowns to the opposing teams that are hurting us and deflating us.”

But after that, the Tigers largely shut down the Wolves’ running game, holding Rayne to 98 yards in the half.

“At first we tried to go with some bigger guys and they were just getting angles on us and just outrunning us,” Antoine said of the halftime adjustment. “The thing with the wing-T is it’s all about angles. We just weren’t getting to them and they were cutting it back on us. We went to a little bit faster lineup. It’s a credit to our players. They kind of said, ‘Coach, let’s go back to what we do.’ Our guys came out there and played hard but by that time we were already down two scores.”

Rayne scored on its first possession, an 88-yard, five-play drive aided by two offside penalties on Westgate. Harmon scored from nine yards out and Morgan Manuel tacked on the PAT with 6:24 to go in the opening period.

Westgate drove on its next possession to the Rayne 7 before failing to convert on fourth-and-one but the Wolves coughed up the ball two snaps later and Westgate got into the end zone three plays later on the first snap of the second quarter when quarterback Darien Charles kept for four yards and the TD. The point after by Connor Scott tied the game with 11:55 to go in the half.

Scott then bounced a perfect squibber off a Rayne returner that the Tigers recovered at the 45, and Kayshon Boutte capped the ensuing drive with a five-yard touchdown carry with 8:43 to go in the half. Boutte had kept the drive going the play before by leaping up and stealing an apparent interception from Rayne’s Zach Fontenot at the 5-yard line.

Scott then sky kicked the ball and Mayea recovered when a Rayne kick team player watched it bounce up instead of trying to field it. The drive stalled, however, setting up the two quick TDs that pushed the Wolves ahead.

With former WHS standout and current Los Angeles Rams defensive end Tyrunn Walker exhorting the Tigers from the sidelines on a cool late October night, Westgate clamped down defensively and held the Wolves without a point in the second half.

But the Tigers couldn’t muster any points of their own in a Senior Night loss.

Charles finished the night 15-for-27 for 176 yards but was picked off twice. Zie Narcisse had six catches for 66 yards to pace the Tigers and Tyran Davis had four catches for 63 yards. 

Tyreese Jackson led Westgate with 57 yards on 18 carries and Charles ran for 36 yards on 22 totes.

“Our guys played well but we’ve got to clean up some stuff up front on both sides of the ball right now,” Antoine said. “It’s been a tough month, but I feel it was all games that we should’ve won, so now we’ve just got to get ready to go for our last game of the season.”

Westgate closes the regular season and district slate next Friday at Northside.