Tigers earn spot in playoffs against Jennings
St. Martinville – The St. Martinville Tigers had their chances in the second half against District 5-3A rival Kaplan on Senior Night, but hurt themselves with a fumble at the end of a long pass play and a dropped pass in the end zone in the second half, falling 28-20 to the Pirates on Friday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 3-7 overall and 1-2 in district, but still earned a spot in the Division II Non-Select playoffs. SMSH will travel to Jennings (7-3) in the first round on Friday. “Well, the offense, we didn’t capitalize (on opportunities),” SMSH coach Garrett Kreamer said Friday. “In the red zone we’re in the inchline and we false start, and that causes us not to score. Another drive, we make a big pass play, then we fumble. And then another drive later in the game, we drop a touchdown pass that’s there. So offense just didn’t capitalize and make plays.”
The teams alternated touchdowns over the first three quarters, with Kaplan scoring on a 21-yard Jayden Hargrave run on its first drive to take a 7-0 lead.
SMSH got inside the Kaplan 1-yard line on its second possession but after a sneak pushed the ball to within inches of the goal on third down, a false start before the fourth-down snap set the Tigers back five yards and the ensuing fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
St. Martinville made no such mistake on its next drive after forcing a Kaplan punt. The Tigers drove 67 yards in seven plays, overcoming a personal foul penalty in the process, to knot the score up on Khyrie Francisco’s 21-yard TD throw to Jamion James. The kick by Logan Bienvenu made it a 7-7 score with 2:12 left in the first half.
SMSH had a chance to take the lead on its first possession of the second half, going on a nine-play drive coming out of the break.
But at the end of a 20-yard completion to James, the Kaplan defense stripped the ball loose and recovered at their own 13.
Six plays later, running back Mathiew Breaux broke loose for a 41-yard touchdown run that gave the Pirates a 14-7 lead, following Gannon Smith’s pointafter kick. The Pirates tacked on another touchdown on their next drive, marching 65 yards in seven plays. Hargrave scored on a three-yard carry two plays into the fourth quarter for a 21-7 lead.
It took the Tigers only two plays to answer and Francisco hit James with consecutive completions of 24 and 29 yards, the latter going into the end zone to make it a 21-14 game.
And the Tigers recovered the ensuing kickoff after Bienvenu’s squibber bounced off a Kaplan player and Bienvenu recovered the ball himself at the Kaplan 49.
The ensuing drive reached the 3-yard line but a fourth-down pass into the end zone could not be corralled by the SMSH receiver and Kaplan took possession
there.
The Pirates put the game away with a 10play scoring drive, with Hargrave carrying on all but one play of the possession. The one-yard touchdown run by Hargrave made it a 28-14 lead.
Hargrave finished the night with 227 yards and three TDs on 33 carries, helping the Pirates to 306 yards on the ground.
“Defensively we’ve just got to be able to stop the run a little better,Kreamer said. “Hats (off) to them. They’re a good, physical team. We just couldn’t stop the run quite enough.”
Left with less than two minutes on the clock, the Tigers took to the air again and went 76 yards in eight plays to pull to within a TD. Francisco’s 30-yard completion to James on a screen play with 20.8 seconds to go pulled St. Martinville to within 28-20, but the PAT kick was wide right.
James had a breakout game with 11 receptions for 207 yards and three touchdowns. Francisco completed 17 of 28 pass attempts for 255 yards and the three TDs and rushed nine times for 18 yards.
Kohen Clues led SMSH with 40 yards on nine carries and Shannon St. Julien added 26 yards on five runs. Jorey Blanchard and Kristian Batiste each had two catches and Kervin Fontenette had 2 yards on one reception.
The 24-seeded Tigers travel to No. 9 Jennings to open the Division II playoffs.
“We’ve just got to focus on doing the little things, not shooting ourselves in the foot,” Kreamer said. “That’s the thing, I think we hurt ourselves more than Kaplan did tonight.
“If we come out and play with energy and make the plays, we’re capable of playing with good teams. But we’ve got to come out and make the plays. I’m proud of our seniors and hopefully they get
(Chris
another chance to play one more game so they can leave it out on the field and hopefully they play their hearts out.”
