Tigers score final 22 points for 22-19 comeback win
Breaux Bridge – The Breaux Bridge High football team fell behind District 5-4A rival Livonia 19-0 in the first half of their season finale on Friday.
But the Tigers could sense things turning around, and when the bubble burst, BBHS had exploded for three late touchdowns and shut out the Wildcats in the second half for a 22-19 win on Senior Night.
“It was definitely our best game defensively,” Breaux Bridge coach Tyler Pierce said. “I think that was what was comforting for the game because we decided to play assignment football and were a lot more in tune with what we’ve been trying to preach for nine weeks.”
The offense struggled in the first half with three turnovers and had an early snap right before halftime that spoiled another try.
“For the seniors, we could kind of feel it even during halftime that that was not how we wanted to write the season off,” Pierce said.
The Tigers came out of the half and recovered an onside kick by Myles Renard.
“You could just feel even though it was 0-19, the bubble was about to pop,” Pierce said. “Right about the end of the third quarter it just really seemed like that’s where the offense came to life. The Oline was starting to take over, and Shawnee Lewis was able to score.”
Lewis finished the night with two touchdowns and 37 yards on 11 carries.
Breaux Bridge had tried about eight onside kicks during the season with limited effectiveness, but recovered two of Renard’s three onside efforts on Friday, including a recovery after the Lewis TD that pulled Breaux Bridge to within 19-7.
Noah Solomon then broke loose for long TD of more than 75 yards to get the Tigers to within 19-14. Solomon had 84 yards on five rushes.
“The big igniter was our little junior running back Noah Solomon who broke for about a 75 or 80 yard run for a touchdown,” Pierce said. “That was when we really felt like the momentum was on our side.”
BBHS tried another onside kick that Livonia recovered, but the defense kept the Wildcats out of scoring range and the Tigers took over again, driving down to score with under a minute remaining on another run by Lewis.
“That was big for him,” Pierce said of the two-TD night by Lewis.
Then came the decision to go for a 2-point conversion to make it a 3-point lead. Pierce called a time out to discuss whether to go for 1 or 2 on the conversion after the Tigers had taken the 20-19 lead.
“Do we just kick the extra point and roll the dice, or go for the 2?” he said. “Even the linemen before said, ‘no, we’re going to bring him into the end zone.’ So that was a fun little timeout right before that 2-point conversion.
“Truthfully even with some of the close moments that we’ve had, everybody was just so calm. It really wasn’t ‘are we going to get this?’ The kids were like ‘no, we’re going to take him into the end zone.’” BBHS went with its bread-and-butter running attack with power runner Baylon Champagne getting the carry for the 2-point conversion.
“It was like ‘this is what we’re going to call and this is what we’re going to go with,’ and of course that meant that the kids were confident, and that’s 99 percent of it,” Pierce said. “If that’s what they want, that’s what they’re going to get. It did help give us some breathing room just in case a big play was going to happen (when Livonia got the ball back).”
Champagne led the Tigers with 91 yards on 18 carries and had a pass reception for five yards.
Quarterback Caynon Ardoin completed seven of 14 pass attempts for 53 yards with Isaiah LeBlanc catching three for 27 yards. Kai Lalonde added a six-yard reception and Solomon also had a fiveyard catch.
The Tigers only had to stop a couple of plays to finish off the win.
“I was just proud of the defense not just about giving up 19, but to go the second half without giving up a touchdown was huge for that group of young guys,” Pierce said.
The defense finished with five takeaways, netting four fumble recoveries and an interception.
Lewis had seven tackles, with Champagne contributing five stops. Cruz Trail had four tackles and a sack and Nelson Borel had a sack, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.
Breaux Bridge won two of its last three games to finish 3-7 overall and 2-2 in District 5-4A. Livonia fell to 4-6 and 1-3.
It’s the second straight season the Tigers finished strong after struggling early, but this year Breaux Bridge loses only 10 seniors instead of the more than 20 it lost after last season.
And even though those 10 played offense, defense and special teams and contributed heavily to this team, the Tigers aren’t taking as big a hit to their overall depth as they did following last season, the coach said.
“There’s a little bit more of a feeling that we still have a lot of kids on the team,” Pierce said. “The numbers aren’t depleting like they did last year.”
The Tigers will return a lot of younger players who got playing time, and are expecting a big class of freshmen moving up from the junior high ranks so the success late in the season can serve more as a lightning rod or launching pad for next year.
