Linebacker D'Maryian Jackson flies through the air to make a tackle on the Northside QB. 

Westgate celebrated Senior Night with one final win of the regular season, defeating the Northside Vikings 42-12 at home on Thursday.

The Tigers have had their eyes on the postseason for weeks, but needed to stay sharp against difficult district opponents to ensure a first round home game this year. Northside, who entered the game with a 3-6 record, was sitting near the cutoff spot in Select Division II and desperately needed a win to ensure a postseason appearance.

Head coach Ryan Antoine said that his team was “hitting our momentum at the right time”, following Westgate’s recent losses to St. Thomas Moore and Lafayette Christian.

The Vikings struck first, capitalizing on a mishandled punt return that gave Northside a fresh set of downs inside the Tigers’ half. Sophomore Javon Broussard added the first points of the night via a 12-yard touchdown pass.

Westgate answered back with a touchdown of their own from senior Dedrick Latulas, who took the ball from the wildcat formation to score a short-yardage rushing TD. Davian Jackson added another ust before the half to give the Tigers a 15-6 lead just before the break.

Westgate added three additional TDs in the third quarter and one in the fourth to secure their seventh win of the season and second in district play.

“Our guys are starting to get their confidence back,” said Antoine after the win. “We were kind of stuck on the 15-0 and then we had a couple of losses so the guys were kind of down about that. We’re getting our guys healthy too, which is a big thing. You saw Derek Williams play tonight and you felt it, guys started flying around.”

Sophomore quarterback Jaboree Antoine went 11-from-15 for 267 yards and two TDs against Northside.

The young DB-turned-QB had a rollercoaster season on offense, but has cemented his place as a starter for the Tigers on both sides of the ball. Antoine said that he will rely on his young play-maker to do big things on offense.

“He’s going to be the guy. We’ll still use Amaaz (Eugene) at times but we feel like we’re a little more dangerous with Jaboree at quarterback and Amaaz can do good things in the backfield and at receiver,” Antoine explained. “He can do a bit of both. Jaboree is also doing double duty at cornerback. He’s one of our better coverage guys, so we’re going to try to put our best guys on the field.”

Davian Jackson scored twice on the ground, averaging 5.5 yards per carry from 4 carries and adding another 89 yards receiving. Dedrick Latulas combined for two TDs and 90 all-purpose yards.

Senior Zaid Landry, who has struggled to make an impact this season, was able to exploit mismatches with the Vikings defense to gain 53 yards from 2 catches and one touchdown.

The Tigers finished the regular season as the unofficial No. 10 seed in Non-Select Division I, and will likely draw No. 23 seed Belle Chase (6-4, 2-2). Official pairings are scheduled to be announced on Sunday.

Despite big changes to the playoffs this year, Antoine said that his team won’t be paying too much attention to the bracket.

“We’re going to go out and play football. One thing we’ve never done is look at a bracket or be worried about an opponent,” he said. “This LHSAA stuff is a joke. You make a decision like that in the middle of the season, I don’t know what the reasoning was. We could’ve taken care of scheduling a whole lot better, but it is what it is and we’ll deal with it and play football.”