Cecilia – The Cecilia High Bulldogs recovered a St. Martinville fumble on the opening kickoff and quickly converted that into a touchdown on Friday in the annual showdown between the two St. Martin Parish rivals. The mistakes snowballed from there for the Tigers and Cecilia happily took advantage, converting three lost fumbles and two interceptions into a 53-0 blowout win that pushed the Bulldogs’ record to 3-1 on the season and knocked SMSH down to 2-2 on the year.
“We’re kind of up and down sometimes,” Cecilia head coach Cody Champagne said. “We start fast sometimes, and we don’t start fast sometimes. We’ve got to do that (start fast) because that’s who we are. We’re going to onside kick, we’re going to start fast, we’re going to take chances.
“If we keep doing that, we’re going to get better and better with those things. We needed to match their intensity right away and I think our kids did that right off the bat.”
Counting dropped snaps and muffed kick returns, the Tigers fumbled eight times in all.
“Well, we’ve got to get better,” St. Martinville head coach James Dartez said. “The same thing happened to us in week one, a whole lot of shooting ourselves in the foot, a whole lot of uncharacteristic mistakes. We thought we had corrected it in weeks two and three but it showed its head again tonight. It’s on us as coaches to get our guys ready to get better.”
The opening kickoff bounced a couple of times to St. Martinville returner Jamion James, and Cecilia’s Brandon Lejeune knocked the ball loose and then recovered at the St. Martinville 15-yard line.
Braylon Calais, who moved to quarterback with starter Layne Champagne out for a few weeks with an injury, swung a pass to Ashton Ruffin on the first Cecilia offensive snap, and the senior receiver raced to the end zone for a one-play scoring drive and a quick 7-0 lead following the PAT by Aiden Landry.
Neither team scored on its next possession, but Cecilia’s defense turned it up on the second St. Martinville possession of the game, sacking quarterback Christian Gedward on consecutive plays. The second sack, finished off by senior defensive lineman Nicholas Matamoros, came in the end zone for a safety that pushed the Cecilia lead to 9-0.
After the free kick from the 20, it took Cecilia only two plays to light up the scoreboard again with tailback Deondre Briscoe racing 32 yards for a touchdown and a 16-0 lead through one quarter.
Briscoe finished the night with 116 yards and two touchdowns on 12 rushes.
St. Martinville put together a solid drive on its next possession, aided by a penalty that negated an interception by Cecilia defensive back Damarcus Babineaux.
But after converting a fourth-down play to a first-and-goal at the 5, the Tigers snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head for a 23-yard loss, and Babineaux picked Gedward off on the next play to end the threat.
“That felt amazing,” Babineaux said of getting his hands on the ball a couple of times. “I just want to come out here and do my assignment.
“The defense is playing amazing.”” Calais hooked up with receiver Franky Frank for an 82-yard touchdown pass on the second play following the interception, pushing the lead to 23-0 with just under 11 minutes remaining in the first half.
Another safety on St. Martinville’s next possession made it a 25-0 game. A high snap on a punt led to St. Martinville punter Logan Bienvenu chasing the ball down and booting it through the back of the end zone to prevent Cecilia from recovering the ball for a touchdown.
Cecilia added two more touchdowns in the half for a 39-0 lead.
After the free kick following the safety, the Bulldogs went 44 yards in seven plays, capped by Briscoe’s five-yard touchdown run with 1:06 left in the half.
SMSH took the ball at its 20 following the kickoff, but a high snap led to a fumble on the first play and defensive lineman Dylan Wolfe returned the ball four yards for a touchdown for the big lead at the break.
The Bulldogs scored on their initial possession of the third quarter, with Calais keeping for an 11-yard touchdown that put the game in running-clock mode for the remainder of the second half. By rule, a 42-point lead in a high school game leads to a running clock with time stopped only for time outs and hydration breaks at the six-minute mark of each quarter.
Sophomore quarterback Javion Wilson raced 57 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Calais had 43 yards and a touchdown on four carries and completed six of 11 pass attempts for 136 yards and two TDs.
Senior H-back Christian Guidry said the Bulldogs played well offensively. Guidry had been a receiver but moved to what is more of a tight-end type role this season.
“It changed for the better,” Guidry said of his role on the offense. “It’s different but I’m able to help out the team. Sure, I’m a good wide out but we’ve got better people (there) and I think the spot I’m in now is better not just for me but for the team. We saw that tonight — made good blocks and got some touchdowns from them. I’m just happy to help.”
Cecilia
“He did some great stuff tonight,” Champagne said. “We kept him in (the game) a lot tonight because they kept an extra guy in the box. He did a good job of helping the O-line out there.”
Trae William Jr. led St. Martinville with 57 yards on 12 runs. Gedward finished 11-for-14 for 32 yards passing with Jamion James making six catches for 21 yards and Landon Guye adding two receptions for 12 yards.
Cecilia plays at Notre Dame (4-0) on Thursday.
“There’s not much different than playing a Friday game, we just move everything up one day,” Champagne said. “It’s extra reps, just making sure we’re all locked in and ready to go.
“(Notre Dame) is always going to be tough. Their defense is going to be tough. Typical Notre Dame.”
“We’ve got great coaches,” Babineaux said. “We’ve got to listen to our coaches, do our assignments, hit practice hard and let’s get it Thursday.”
Guidry said there are still things the Bulldogs need to improve upon.
“We’ve just got to get better,” he said. “We have to work harder than every week before because we know what our max is, and execute.”
St. Martinville returns home to face winless Northside (0-4) on Friday.
“We’ve just got to get back to work,” Dartez said. “I told the guys, we’ll see ’em in the morning. We’ll break down film and look at every mistake that we made and we’ll get back to doing what we do. We didn’t play like ourselves tonight and that’s on me as a coach to hold us to that standard.”
