OL injuries take toll on BBHS in loss to Vikings

Tigers fall to Northside 46-26 in non-district game

– Mounting injuries are doing the Breaux Bridge High Tigers no favors.

The Tigers, who already have faced their share of lost playing time due to injury and illness, saw a couple of offensive linemen go down with injuries in a 46-26 loss to Northside on Thursday.

That’s led to most starters having to play a lot of minutes on offense and defense, not to mention special teams, and the wear and tear didn’t help against an athletic Northside High squad visiting Breaux Bridge this past week.

“It’s already a position of need,” BBHS coach Tyler Pierce said of the two OL injuries. “We lose arguably our top offensive lineman, and then one of our top O-line/D-linemen. When your numbers are low it really hurts.”

Pierce said the coaches are proud of the young players who’ve stepped in where injured players go down.

“There’s a sophomore that stepped in who’s had some playing time earlier in the year,” he said. “There’s another one that’s had some playing time. So the one good thing about it is they weren’t as green, but they haven’t had as many reps (repetitions in practice and games) lately. They got thrown in the fire and I think they did well.”

The Vikings (4-2 overall) scored on three of their five first-half possessions to build a 20-7 lead, and added two TDs in the third quarter and two more in the fourth to hold off the Tigers.

Breaux Bridge fought back with three secondhalf touchdowns but couldn’t stop the Vikings offense.

BBHS held Northside to only five total yards on their first possession but gave up the ball inside the 10 on a fumbled snap on a punt, setting up a first-and-goal at the 6.

It took four plays, but the Vikings converted with a nine-yard pass from Chace Dugas to Taylon Arceneaux on fourth-and-goal to take a 6-0 lead with 4:25 left in the first quarter.

“We adjusted a little bit on defense this week to try to get them to play a little bit faster, try to keep the rules and stuff,” Pierce said. “When we go back and look at things (on film), we’re going to like a lot of what we saw, it’s just a lot of techniques and where your eyes are at. It’s just football.”

Northside scored on its next possession thanks to a pair of runs that netted 28 and 14 yards, setting up TJ Isadore’s four-yard touchdown carry on the first play of the second quarter. The 2-point run by Dugas made it 14-0.

BBHS answered with a 12-play scoring drive that went 78 yards. A 20-yard pass from Caynon Ardoin to Isaiah LeBlanc and two offside penalties against the Vikings helped the drive move along. LeBlanc had runs of 12 and nine yards on the drive, the latter for the Tigers’ first points with 6:33 left in the half. The PAT by Dru Cormier cut the Northside lead to 14-7.

After an exchange of punts, the Vikings put together a six-play scoring drive, overcoming two penalties, with Kamron Celestine scoring on a nine-yard run to make it 20-7.

The Vikings tacked on another TD on their first possession of the second half with Dugas scoring on a 37-yard QB keeper with 9:57 left in the third quarter. The missed PAT kept the score 26-7.

Isadore led Northside with 64 yards rushing and two TDs on four carries. Celestine added 35 yards and a TD on nine carries and Dugas had 60 yards and a TD on four runs.

The Tigers got their running game going with an eight-play scoring drive, seven of them runs, to make it a 26-13 game after the threeyard scoring run by Noah Solomon. Pierce said Solomon was fighting the flu on Thursday, and several other players had fought the flu during the week.

Baylon Champagne led the Tigers with 139 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. LeBlanc added 46 yards and a touchdown on six carries, Shawnee Lewis had 12 runs for 32 yards and Solomon had 31 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.

The Tigers finished with 212 yards on the ground.

“That’s always going to be our calling card,” Pierce said. “For us it’s trying to move some personnel to try to get some rest on defense to try to get them fresher for offense. We still have to maneuver each week because we had kids battling the flu, and then injuries. It’s a constant jigsaw puzzle.”

But the Vikings answered with a quick scoring drive as Dugas hit Jai Joseph with a 65-yard touchdown throw on third down on the ensuing possession for a 33-13 lead.

Backup QB Kaleb Joseph then hit Jai Joseph for a 52-yard touchdown throw on the Vikings’ second play of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 4013.

Dugas completed four of 10 passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns and Joseph had one pass completion in one attempt for a TD.

Breaux Bridge drove 91 yards in 11 plays, overcoming a personal foul penalty on the drive, with Champagne getting over the goal on the last of four consecutive runs, a three-yard carry. Champagne had a 31-yard run and LeBlanc a 21-yard carry in the series.

A 45-yard TD run by Isadore with 4:50 left extended Northside’s lead to 46-20.

Breaux Bridge answered one more time, with Ardoin’s 32-yard pass to a diving, twisting LeBlanc setting up the score three plays later. Solomon had the honors with a six-yard run at the 44-second mark of the final period.

BBHS (1-6 overall, 0-1 district) returns to District 5-4A play this week against Beau Chene (1-6, 0-1) on Friday at home. “For us, I think this is a game where first we can have a three-day rest,” Pierce said. “It’s going to be a game that Beau Chene wants and we want.