immediately. Williams carried for a short gain but had the ball jarred loose, only to have James scoop the ball up and race 45 yards to paydirt, extending St. Martinville’s lead to 4129 after the point-after by Logan Bienvenu.
Ledet scored again on the next NISH possession, crossing the goal from three yards out early in the fourth quarter to bring the score to 41-36.
Williams scored on a 14-yard run with 9:02 left to extend the lead to 48-36, and Ledet scored on a nine-yard run with 6:25 left to wrap up the scoring.
“Towards the second half I got my momentum up and my guys were energized with the scoreboard being what it was,” Williams said.
St. Martinville was forced to punt on its next possession but the ball bounced off Ledet’s chest after a couple of hops and SMSH recovered, then kept the ball until less than 30 seconds remained. NISH could not get to the end zone after three incomplete passes and a 24yard pass play chewed up the remaining time.
“Last week it was more of the passing game and this week it was more complementary football,” Coach Dartez said. “Hats off to the O-line. They came in and said coach we’re going to open up holes today. We had four freshmen on the offensive line and one sophomore, we had a bunch of babies up there, and they fought their tails off. Again, coming out with the victory, it’s something to hang their hats on.”
St. Martinville plays its final game in the three-way parish rivalry this week, traveling to Cecilia (2-1).
Despite putting the ball on the ground 10 times, the Tigers only lost two fumbles. That and 14 penalties for 92 yards leaves the team with things to improve upon.
“We’ve got to clean up our mistakes,” Dartez said. “We were just lucky enough to recover our own fumbles.
“We feel like we’re in a good position. Again, there’s still a whole lot of work left to go, but we’re feeling great. We’re in the middle of a rebuild, year one, and the guys are coming in every day and just trying to re-establish that pride in St. Martinville football.”
Williams is thrilled to see the Tigers off to a good start to the season.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “We’ve got to come back with the energy (this week).”
“We’ve just got to keep practicing, keep balling,” Gedward agreed.
“We’re playing a great football team next week,” Dartez said. “They’re well-coached.
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They’re very disciplined. We have to make sure we’re playing our A game at all times.”
