Written by Kyle Valdez In the second game of the TGMC Community Sports Institute High School Football Jamboree, the Terrebonne Tigers hosted the EDW Cardinals. Although Terrebonne entered the game as heavy favorites with a strong home crowd behind them, EDW played stout defense all night and managed to to keep the game at 7-7 after completing the two 15-minute halves. On the opening drive of the game, standout Florida St. commit Jakhi Douglas rushed for a touchdown, giving Terrebonne a 7-0 lead at the 12:42 mark of the first quarter. For the rest of the half, both defenses excelled. EDW’s junior Ben Toups intercepted a pass at the 6:22 mark. Terrebonne’s defense forced two fumbles: one fumble forced by senior Justin Murray and recovered by senior Jakobe Carter, the other fumble recovered at the EDW 22 yard line. With 1:02 left in the half, EDW’s defense kept strong and kept the score at 7-0 going into halftime. In the 2nd half, EDW evened up the score at 7-7 when freshman Hunter Schexnayder scored the ball for a 1-yard touchdown run. With 3 minutes left in the half, Terrebonne had a golden opportunity inside EDW’s 5 yard line. After EDW’s line held Terrebonne out of the end zone three times, Terrebonne sophomore Wyatt Guidry booted an 18-yard field goal. In the final 30 seconds of the game, Terrebonne again failed to reach the end zone when EDW’s junior Trey Sternfels picked off a pass inside the Cardinals’ 15 yard line with just 2 seconds. After the game, EDW’s head coach Kyle Lassiegne was very impressed with his team’s performance against a program like Terrebonne. “This was huge for us because we know the hype that Terrebonne’s got. We know they got some great athletes, and for us to play 7-7 is about everything I could ask for. I’m not sure many other teams are gonna have this much talent.” He also gave much deserved credit to his defense, “We had our backs up against the wall a lot, especially on defense. We made some big plays to get out of some situations.” In the opening drive of the game, it felt as if Terrebonne was going to prove why they should be viewed as a top team in the state and the favorite to win District 7-5A. But after the first drive of the game, it felt like they weren’t focused, a bit uninterested, and not physical enough. Maybe they overlooked EDW, maybe it was “just the jamboree”, but for tonight: the far more talented and successful program didn’t show it. Not many teams have the talent, experience, and resume as Terrebonne’s roster. Not to discredit EDW, because they have a very well-disciplined and solid team, but the expectations for a team of Terrebonne’s caliber exceed the average. After the game, Coach Gary Williams didn’t overreact to his team’s performance, specifically pointing out that the team’s drives were very productive and that cleaning up a few penalties would change the outcome of tonight. “I thought we moved the ball down the field well, we just didn’t finish. And defensively, we played well at times but we extended their drives with some penalties. We had a great point return at the end of the game and picked up a penalty there. We gotta just do a better overall job at finishing things and making plays.” With sudden doubts about the legitimacy of the Tigers, they have the perfect opportunity to make a statement against a school like Jesuit for their home opener. For E.D. White, they have much to be happy about coming away from the jamboree: they were competitive against one of the best 5A teams in the state from a year ago. Playing on the road and getting themselves out of tough situations, they proved to be a resilient and discipline team. A performance like this gives me confidence in the Cardinals to slowly emerge as one of the favorites to win District 9-3A over Lutcher and St. James. Of course it is only a jamboree, the game was only 30 minutes, and their record is still 0-0, but Coach Lassiegne can only be pumped looking forward to next week’s game against Vandebilt for the “Holy War” rivalry.
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Manuel Franco
4/24/2023 01:09:45 am
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