All St. Martin Parish teams travel for Friday openers

The start if the 2014 prep football season will see all three St. Martin Parish teams taking to the road on Friday.

BB at New Iberia
Breaux Bridge’s talented defensive unit looked to be at mid-season form in the Tigers’ 12-0 shutout of Livonia, the 2013 Class 3A runner-up.
“Yes, we played well,” said coach Paul Broussard. “We showed good improvement from our scrimmage and (defensive back) Joseph Williams had a good night, with two picks, one returned for a touchdown.”
Offensively, the Tigers were well balanced, with 47 yards rushing and 55 through the air although junior QB Drake Guidry suffered two interceptions and freshman Julian Leon was sacked three times.
“They’re young,” points out Broussard, “and still learning.”
But the Tiger coach felt his offensive line blocked well although the team picked up nine penalties in what amounted to half of a regular game. “That’s way too many,” admits Broussard. “We’re going to focus on that this week in practice.”
The Tigers never had to punt but missed on both PAT attempts. Kicker Baylee Thibodeaux is a sophomore and Broussard expects he’ll settle down with a little experience.
The Tigers are healthy going into Friday’s season opener against New Iberia, which battled to an 8-8 tie with Westgate in jamboree action.
The Class 5A Yellow Jackets went 10-2 last year, reaching the second round of the state playoffs.
“They lost a lot of players,” says Broussard, “but they’re still a quality team that should prove to be a good test for us.”

Cecilia at Comeaux
Five penalties that cost Cecilia 55 yards in the early minutes of their 21-6 loss to Carencro “absolutely killed us” says coach Terry Martin.
“But I think our kids learned a lesson and settled down in the second half.”
One thing the coaching staff will be emphasizing this week is tackling techniques after a shaky showing against the Bears.
On a positive note, Martin felt the passing game was really clicking, with junior quarterback Landon Roberts completing 8-of-10 tosses for 74 yards and Cecilia’s lone TD. And the completions went to five different receivers.
“Landon threw the ball well downfield,” observed Martin. “And we’re deep at the receiver position. Looking back, we probably should have thrown ever more.”
Junior running back Raymond Calais Jr. banged his ankle in the first half and didn’t see much action for the rest of the game but the injury was not serious.
The kicking game still concerns Martin as the ’Dogs missed their only PAT try and averaged less than 28 yards on three punts. “We’re just very inexperienced there,” he says.
Cecilia faces another strong Class 5A team in Comeaux, which finished 6-4 last year.
“They’re a bit inexperienced overall, but they’re big and very physical,” says Martin. “They’ve got a young quarterback but one of the top receivers in the state, so we’ll have our hands full.”
The Spartans lost their jamboree game to Northside by an 18-14 margin.

SM at Jennings
While his St. Martinville Tigers suffered a 30-0 shutout at the hands of Acadiana in last week’s jamboree, coach Danny Carroll is quick to point out that the Rams have one of the strongest programs in all of Louisiana high school football.
“We’re not gonna see another team like that the rest of this year,” says Carroll. “But our kids went nose-to-nose with them, played hard and never quit.”
Carroll was pleased to see lots of improvement from the scrimmage against Lafayette a couple of weeks ago.
“We were more physical on defense and our offensive line blocked better.”
In his first start at quarterback, senior Jordan Papillion ran well at times but tended to hold the ball too long on pass attempts, leading to several costly sacks.
Sophomore running back Trevon Charles showed promise, rushing for 15 yards and catching two passes.
Friday’s opponent reached the semifinal round of the Class 3A playoffs last year and finished with a 10-4 record. The Bulldogs battled to a 21-21 tie with Lafayette in their jamboree game.
“We’re excited about the season opener,” Carroll said Monday. “We had a good practice today and I know our kids are gonna play hard. We’ve got a couple of banged up starters but we’re hoping they’ll be ready to go on Friday.”
St. Martinville edged Jennings 34-31 in the 2013 season opener.