#1 Ranked In 3A St. James stays unbeaten with victory over the Donaldsonville Tigers 37-6
Composed By Jo Gonzales – Analyst, Evaluator and Content Editor for Recruit Louisiana
It was finally feeling like high school football as the hot evenings had finally changed to cool evenings and light breeze.
Donaldsonville and St. James has become a yearly rivalry game that includes tailgating, band challenges and best of all, a great night of high school football.
This years game would bring the #1 Team in 3A, the St. James Wildcats, to Donaldsonville, LA to face a very young and talented Donaldsonville Tigers in a 9-3A matchup on Friday night.
It started as one of the most interesting games of the season as Donaldsonville offensively consumed almost the entire first quarter with its first offensive drive.
That was the game plan for the Tigers, to slow the Wildcats offensive fire power down and consume the clock. In fact, the entire first quarter and most of the second quarter consisted of two offensive drives by the Tigers and one offensive 3 and out by the Wildcats. Via Head Coach Robert Valdez of the St. James Wildcats it was a great game plan.
Finally at the 7:30 mark of the 2nd quarter freshman running back Robert Kent came around the end for the Tigers, leaped a defender and headed into the endzone for the first score of the game, giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Wildcats to answer as Senior ATH Shamar Smith, UTSA Commit, took it in from the 3 yard line for the touchdown with 1:45 left in the half and giving St. James their first lead of the game after the extra point (6-7 St. James). The Wildcats would get another chance right before half time as a turnover by the Tigers would set up a 41 Yd field goal attempt that was good by Sophomore K/P Alex Mahler as time expired, bringing the half time score to 10-6 St. James.
The Wildcats come out of halftime with the first offensive possession and never looked back at that point, scoring three times in the 3rd Qtr to extend their lead.
St. James senior running back Sean Lebeouf rushed for 121 yards in the game and scored two touchdowns, one from 2 Yards and the other from 6 yards.
Senior ATH Shamar Smith would add another touchdown with a 2-yard scoring run to make it 30-6 going into the fourth quarter.
The scoring for the Wildcats would be capped off by A 3-yard run by Sophomore running back Daniel Jupiter taking the score to 37-6 with 3:20 left in the game, which would be the final score for the game.
Defensively there were sparks all over the field including a big intercept by senior corner Brad Batiste who set himself up to become the receiver on one pass by Brown. So many defensive backs do not understand at times they need to become the receiver on the field. The thought process for inspiring defensive back’s is that they are meant to catch the pass just as much as the receiver and that is just the mentality of the secondary of the St James Wildcats. Make the play and give your offense back the ball to score.
Sophomore defensive end Saivion Jones made his presence known as he was all over the field racking up 8 solo tackles and 4 assist with 3 TFL. Pair Jones with senior defensive end Chase Geason (6’4″ 200) and the pair can wreak havoc on the opposing backfield and quarterbacks all night.
Just remember the Donaldsonville Tigers are young and they are continuing to get better each week. Going against the number #1 team in 3A was a true test of who they are as a team. Two things that I came away with this young team: 1) a group of young men who want to win and they are very coachable, take instruction and apply it on each play of the game and 2) a true sense of being a Band Of Brothers. You don’t find that with just any team. They appear to really be like brothers who fight for each other on the field and want to make the next play for the player next to them. That is a very special characteristic of a team and a team culture.
Stay tuned for more highlights and stats to come…………………………
