westgate schedule

New Iberia football fans had to wait an extra week to see the area’s most anticipated matchup of the 2022 football season.

New Iberia Senior High and Westgate High School skipped the Iberia Parish Sugarcane Jamboree this year, preferring to face each other when the score really mattered, in Week 1 of the regular season.

Westgate will enter the game as the favorites on paper, having won the 2021 Class 4A state championship and returning several key players to the depth chart. Their jamboree game against Lake Charles College Prep began slowly as the Trailblazers took an early 12-0 lead, but the Tigers were able to find their rhythm at home and came away with an 18-12 win.

Westgate also face a second opponent when they travel across town to take on the Yellow Jackets. Despite an upward trend of success, the Tigers haven’t won a Week 1 game since their 19-6 win over Carencro in 2013. While it’s far from a curse, their history of poor performances to begin the season might cause an otherwise powerful Tiger team to be a little more cautious on Friday.

For NISH, this season can’t possibly be any worse than last year. After going 0-10, NISH parted ways with head coach Curt Ware and brought in former defensive coordinator Josh Lierman to steady the ship.

Lierman had his work cut out for him, implementing an entirely new offense and defense and scrambling to put together a full coaching staff. The signs are positive at NISH, but their jamboree performance against Class 2A opponent Franklin exposed several weaknesses that Lierman will need to fix quickly.

It’s anyone’s guess who comes out on top when these two New Iberia powerhouses face off at 7 p.m. on Friday. Records and form are often of little consequence in rivalry games, and both teams will be looking to prove a point by beating the “noisy neighbor” to start the season.