Fumble turns game in Loreauville’s favor

Published 12:15 am Sunday, November 4, 2018

LOREAUVILLE — Delcambre and Loreauville traded touchdowns, and the lead, for more than half of their District 7-2A game Friday night before a third-quarter turnover helped Loreauville take a two-score lead on the way to their first win of the 2018 football season, 46-38, on homecoming night.

With neither defense able to stop the other offense, the teams went to the break with a combined 46 points on the scoreboard. Loreauville continued that trend with a touchdown to open the third quarter, and Delcambre appeared headed for another lead change with a drive inside the Tigers’ 10-yard line on the ensuing possession.

Then came the turnover. A DHS ballcarrier was stopped behind the line, and the defender, sophomore Jaylyn James, both stripped the ball on the takedown and recovered it himself at the 15.

After a lengthy discussion by the officiating crew resulted in the turnover, Loreauville got a 40-yard run on the next play by Ethan Simon, with a horsecollar tackle penalty tacked on to the end of the run, and a roughing the passer penalty gave the Tigers another first down at the 21.

LHS quarterback Luke Landry hit Simon for a 19-yard gain to the 2, and James carried in from there to give the Tigers a 38-24 lead with just over two minutes remaining.

“I guess the biggest thing was finally we made a plays when we had to,” Loreauville coach Terry Martin said.

“You want to send the seniors out. I downplay homecoming as much as anybody, but once the game is over, it’s always good to win your homecoming game.”

“A back-and-forth game like it was, whoever was going to make the first mistake and the other one capitalize on it, that was the swing,” DHS coach Marc Broussard said. “If it was them, I’d like to think we would have capitalized on it, but unfortunately it was us and they took advantage of it.”

Martin said that having inexperienced players step up and get a win after such a tough season was big, he said.

“You never would’ve known what our record was” based on the way the team played, Martin said. “The big thing was the young kids that had such a big part in this tonight. Several freshmen, a bunch of sophomores, and just to show all the guys that didn’t play and that can play, somebody has to step up, and if you don’t take care of business, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, someone’s going to play. I was proud of those kids who stepped up who had never played before, to make the plays they did. I think it gives our young kids just a little taste of what we can do.”

The squads resumed their tit-for-tat scoring after the lone turnover of the game, before a turnover on downs for Delcambre and a punt by Loreauville — each team had only one with DHS punting on its first possesion — allowed Delcambre to pull to within 46-38 with 30 seconds to go.

The ensuing onside kick attempt didn’t go the required 10 yards before being touched, allowing Loreauville to snap once more before the game ended.

It was a tough loss for the Panthers, who had been battling for a playoff spot only a year after a winless season. Delcambre (3-7, 1-5 district) was 33rd in the most recent LHSAA power rankings, with the top 32 teams earning bids.

“We couldn’t stop them offensively,” Broussard said. “They had more speed on the field than we did and we didn’t tackle well. We had people there, and didn’t tackle well. Speed was the difference.”

It was easily the Tigers’ biggest offensive output of the season, nearly matching in one game the season total of 52 points scored in the previous nine. Loreauville rushed for 280 yards, led by Simon (95 yards and a touchdown) and James (92 yards and a touchdown), with Landry added 52 yards and Chris Anthony running for 36.

A reverse with a pass from James to senior Grant Norris went for 36 yards and a touchdown, and Landry threw for 39 yards and a TD, a seven-yarder to Jesse Pelous. Loreauville also got a touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone by lineman Austin Belaire after a fumble inside the 5.

“(Simon) took forever to throw it because he was wide open for a while, but that worked, and then we ran the hook-and-lateral that I thought would work for a little more — I think we got 14 on it,” Martin said.

LHS scored on its first six possessions before punting and then kneeling to end the game on its next two.

Delcambre continued its offensive surge with 290 total yards, including 240 on the ground, paced by Parker Nunez’s 123 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. Quarterback Colt Dooley had 57 yards and a TD on the ground and completed a pair of passes for 50 yards, including a 41-yarder to Hayden Frederick. Noah Broussard rushed for 52 yards and Tirney Dejean added 33 yards on the ground.

Martin noted the Tigers were again fighting injuries and illness. Starting tight end Bryan Patout, the team’s best linebacker, got hurt off the field the night before the game. Austin Melancon, who also was hurt the night before, played both ways. Leslie Joseph, the team’s best athlete, was ill since the middle of the week and couldn’t play.

The coach said he thanks God the LHS players are so resilient, getting up to fight every week after getting knocked down only to have three starters potentially knocked out the two nights before the final game. Pelous, who’d never played tight end or caught a pass, was pressed into duty there, Martin said, and being a 4.0 student, he picked up quickly the little he was taught about the position, catching a TD pass and a 2-point conversion.

Ethan Simon, who’s always been good for the Tigers but he missed the last two weeks with an injury, lined up at inside receiver some where the tight end would normally be in some situations instead of at running back.

Loreauville had run the same reverse with the intent to pass the week before, with Patout set to throw the ball, but the situation didn’t call for a pass at that point. Simon had worked on throwing a halfback pass all year, so having him throw it on the reverse from a slot/tight end position made sense.

“We put all this in at fourth block when we did our walk-through,” Martin said. “And again, they executed. Lucas, God … so many things he had to try to scramble and learn in such a short time (as someone playing quarterback for the first time this year because of injuries). He played hard but just struggled to fully understand everything, but tonight, thank God, it just clicked a little bit. I’m just so happy for the kids to win this last game.”