JEANERETTE — Led by Ra’Shon Wiley, the Jeanerette defense buckled down this past Friday in a 20-14 win at Loreauville.

Wiley, who racked up 14 tackles, was determined to see his unit perform better after the JSH defense was socked for 103 combined points in weeks two and three.

“I was just moving around the field a lot, going to different positions where I was needed,” the 6-foot tall, 190-pound senior said. “I played rover linebacker and I was playing defensive line — just wherever my team needed me.

“I started watching film on Loreauville and then when the game started, I was seeing the same stuff I’d be seeing at practice. Our practices really helped me a lot going into the game. I really practiced hard.”

Wiley feels that getting a victory in the district opener last week will help his squad go into this evening’s tilt with a positive mindset. The Tigers play host to Catholic High today in a game moved to New Iberia Senior High because of weather-related issues with the JHS field.

“It felt good to get the win against Loreauville, because coming up this week we play Catholic High and this is a big game,” he said. “With us beating Loreauville, that was a big confidence booster right there that got us out of the slump that we had been in.

“We’ve been practicing very hard for Catholic High and hopefully that will carry over to the game. We’ve been going hard at practice, exploring new things and trying to see where we’re good at. I think I’ll probably be playing defensive line most of the time in this game.”

Catholic High, which downed Jeanerette 57-8 last season, is coming off a lopsided (49-0) loss to Notre Dame.

“I feel like we’re going to finish the season strong and do enough to go to the playoffs,” Wiley added. “We just have to keep fighting hard. As long we have the team chemistry, we can do anything we put our minds to.”

The Tigers (2-2, 1-0) were paced on offense last week by senior running back Elton Alexander Jr., who went for well over 100 yards on the ground with multiple touchdowns.

“Shout out to my offensive line,” Alexander said. “They did good. Without my line, I couldn’t have done any of it. They blocked their five on the d-line and even moved down and helped me out against the linebackers, and if they can do that, it’s up to me sometimes to make just one man miss and I can have a great night every night.

“We could have done better on both sides of the ball. We were a little sluggish in the first half. It was 8-0 at halftime. Our defense woke up in the second half and got stops and fumble recoveries. I’m proud of my linebackers. They came around this game. They didn’t do much against Abbeville — we came up short — but we did better against Loreauville.”

Jeanerette head coach Ananias Johnson was proud of his hard-charging RB.

“Elton was our workhorse against against Loreauville,” Johnson said. “He just balled all night long. We made a lot of mistakes, but those are correctable, and you’re going to have those types of mistakes when you’re not able to get out and practice like you want to because of the weather.

“It was very important to win last week because it gave our guys an extra spark to come out and practice hard. We weren’t able to come out and get many physical reps due to the weather, but we got mental reps.”