St. Martinville – The St. Martinville Senior High School Tigers kept the ball for the entire third quarter of Friday’s season opening game against Cecilia to give head coach Garrett Kreamer a 34-29 win in his official debut with the team.
The Tigers went on a nine-play scoring drive to extend a 19-14 halftime lead to 27-14, then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and held the ball for 16 more plays, running out the remainder of the quarter and taking another 1:45 off the clock in the fourth quarter before turning the ball over on downs following a couple of penalties in the red zone.
Though SMSH didn’t add to its lead on that series, the third-quarter domination allowed SMSH to hold off the defending Division II Non-Select state champions, who scored twice in the final period to make it a one-score game.
“That’s the running game and the offensive line,” Kreamer said of keeping the ball for the entire third quarter. “I can’t thank those guys enough for the way they blocked. Just so proud of those guys for their grittiness and their toughness and just putting the game on ice with that third quarter.”
“Hats off to St. Martinville,” first-year Cecilia head coach Cody Champagne said. “They had a plan and they stuck with it. They pretty much ran out the whole clock in the third quarter.”
Both teams jump right back into the fire this week with Cecilia traveling to St. Amant on Thursday and SMSH traveling to Lafayette High on Friday. Kreamer was the head coach at Lafayette last season. The Mighty Lions beat Franklin 52-8 on Friday to open the season away from home.
“We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas,” Kreamer said. “We’ll enjoy this one this weekend, but then Monday we’re back at it. We’ve got another good ballclub to play and we’re going to do the same thing, play our brand of football.”
St. Amant beat C.E. Byrd 49-6 in its season opener this past week.
In Friday’s season opener between the St. Martin Parish rivals, the Tigers stunned Cecilia early after the Bulldogs had marched 48 yards to St. Martinville’s 18 on their opening drive.
Cecilia was forced to go for a 35-yard field goal on fourth down, and the Tigers blocked the attempt. SMSH senior defensive back Ky’Lun Skipper picked the ball up, looked around and then raced upfield untouched for a 79-yard return to give St. Martinville a 7-0 lead following the point after by Logan Bienvenu.
“I think early on we got behind the chains a couple of times,” Champagne said. “We had just scored a touchdown and got a penalty. That hurt, and then we got a blocked field goal and we just kind of never recovered from that.”
That lead lasted only a few seconds, however, because Braylon Calais returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown, picking the ball up on the left side of the field before heading to the right sideline and racing virtually untouched to en end zone. The point-after kick by Sean Richard knotted the score at 7-all with 6:38 remaining in the first quarter.
Cecilia forced a St. Martinville punt on the ensuing possession, then marched 55 yards in eight plays with Calais scoring on a 20-yard run three snaps into the second quarter. The Richard PAT gave the ’Dogs a 14-7 lead.
SMSH answered quickly with a five-play scoring drive after recovering an attempted onside kick at the St. Martinville 47. A 24yard pass from Khyrie Francisco to Jamion James set up Francisco’s 15-yard TD run two plays later. The PAT was wide but the Tigers had pulled to within 14-13 with 9:28 left in the half.
Neither team could muster much over the next three possessions with Cecilia punting twice after failing to pick up a first down and St. Martinville throwing an interception that Jaylon Frederick returned across midfield.
SMSH finally got back in the scoring column with a seven-play drive that Francisco converted into points with a 46-yard run at the 1:08 mark. A bad snap led to an incomplete pass on the conversion attempt but the Tigers led 19-14 and did not trail again.
SMSH pushed that lead to two touchdowns on its first possession of the second half, going 60 yards in nine plays, with Francisco rushing the ball nine times and throwing two passes to James, the first for 10 yards and the second for 24 yards and a touchdown. The two hooked up again for the 2-point conversion and a 27-19 lead.
Things turned completely on the kickoff when the Bulldogs coughed the ball up at the SMSH 46. St. Martinville ran out the remaining 7:16 of the quarter, getting the ball as deep as the 9-yard line on a fourth-down conversion by Francisco.
But a holding penalty and sideline warning on the same play set the Tigers back 15 yards and Cecilia forced a turnover on downs at the 24 to prevent a score.
The Bulldogs couldn’t gain a first down, however, and St. Martinville drove 56 yards for the clinching touchdown following a CHS punt.
Francisco carried the ball three straight times on the ensuing possession, and Kohen Clues closed out the series with three straight runs, including a 14-yard run to the end zone with 6:22 remaining in the game. Bienvenu’s PAT made it a 34-14 game at that point.
Cecilia did not go down without a fight, however, marching 60 yards in nine plays, capped by a six-yard Calais run for a touchdown with 4:30 to go. Quarterback Collin Dore threw to Jermaine Davis for the 2-point conversion to cut it to a 34-22 SMSH lead.
The Bulldogs forced a punt on St. Martinville’s next possession, then struck quickly with an 86-yard scoring pass from Dore to Calais, followed by Richard’s point-after to pull CHS to within 34-29 with 1:01 remaining.
St. Martinville recovered the ensuing onside kick and had Francisco kneel twice to run out the clock.
Francisco powered St. Martinville’s 343-yard offensive attack, completing 12 of 17 pass attempts for 164 yards and a touchdown and rushing 26 times for 18 yards and two TDs. James had six catches for 86 yards and a TD, and Clues ran for 51 yards and a touchdown on 10 second-half carries.
“Overall, I’m so happy for our team, everybody in the whole program,” Kreamer said. “This is a team win. The boys fought hard for four quarters. Of course, we’ve got to clean some things up, but hats off to Cecilia. They kept fighting, kept fighting and found themselves in the game. But I’m proud of our guys for bowing our necks and making plays when we had to.”
Calais was a scoring machine for the Bulldogs, rushing for a team-high 64 yards and two TDs on nine carries, catching four passes for 153 yards and a touchdown and returning a kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown. After that kick, SMSH chose to kick the ball out of bounds several times following its touchdowns to avoid another long return.
Dore completed seven of 14 pass attempts for 191 yards and a TD and ran 10 times for 27 yards in his debut.
“I think early on we got behind the chains a little bit,” Champagne said. “We got a touchdown early and then had a penalty, and then we got a blocked field goal and then we never kind of recovered from that.”
Champagne said that the Bulldogs still can achieve their goals this season despite the tough loss.
“Look, it’s one game, and it hurts, but the thing is, we’ve got to get better,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. We have to get better and do the little things that we’re not doing to compete.”
Champagne said that this is a different team from last year, including coaches, and that both players and coaches need to get better and step up to make this a successful season.
“It’s Game 1. A lot of things happen between Game 1 and Game 2, and we do have a short week coming up but hopefully we’ll have a great week of practice,” he said.
