BC, PB Assessments Continue
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
After experiencing opening-game losses, Port Barre and Beau Chene had opportunities to undergo more early season evaluations Saturday night, but their coaches agree that questions still remain for each program.
Those were the lingering Week 2 sentiments from each staff, following a 34-0 Port Barre win during a penalty-plagued game that ended with a sudden thunderstorm in Prairie Basse.
Port Barre head coach Brent Angelle thinks the Red Devils have an opportunity to continue building off their 2023 success.
However the verdict on that assumption is pending, said Angelle.
“Right now I’d have to say it’s a mixed bag. I think we have the potential to be good, but at this point we are a team that still has to learn to get out of our own way. I think moving down in classification (to Class 2A) is going to help us. We have to wait and see how that is going to help us,” Angelle said.
The win over Beau Chene was the first for Port Barre in three seasons.
Ironically the unusual Saturday game was similar to the situation last season when the contest between the teams was also delayed due to weather conditions.
Port Barre lost to Beau Chene 7-6 in 2023 in that Saturday contest which Angelle felt the Devils could have won.
“I guess you could say this win for us was redemption. We were healthy offensively for this game and pretty much overall at full strength. We needed a win like this to help us get ready for the rest of the season,” Angelle said.
Beau Chene head coach Buck Harris was uncertain about how to evaluate a game that featured 152 accepted penalty yards against his team which finished 1-9 the last two years.
Many of the 14 infractions against the Gators were facemask and unsportsmanlike penalties.
“I saw some positives from this and then you see us sometimes going back to our old ways. It’s like we take a step forward and then it’s a step backward,” said Harris, who became the Beau Chene head coach in January.
“At this point I have to say that it’s going to take some time. We’r not going to do this overnight. What we have to get our players to do is to believe in themselves and the process. We have some great kids. We need them to get to play together and show what they can do,” Harris said.
The Game Story
Port Barre led 27-0 at halftime. The Devils finished with 185 rushing yards and 180.
Quarterbacks Tylus Metrejean and Seth Smith combined for 10 completions on 13 attempts.
Metrejean, a junior, scored in multiple fashion after throwing a 22-yard, second quarter scoring pass to Adam Barron, running 20 yards for the Devils’ third touchdown and then catching a six-yard throw from Smith with 45 seconds remaining before the intermission.
Barron scored the first Port Barre TD on a 53-yard run.
Beau Chene squandered an initial hope of scoring with an extended game-opening drive that reached the Devils’ 17.
Three penalties and a 14-yard loss following a high snap moved the Gators backward to their own 44 on five successive plays.
It was a similar story for the Gators after Beau Chene recovered an onsides kick that opened the third quarter.
Starting from the Port Barre 42, Beau Chene advanced to the Devils’ 38, before another high snap on third down ended potential prosperity.
Beau Chene finished with 59 rushing yards. The Gators failed to complete any of five passing attempts.
Added Features
The contest featured a long-awaited field lighting improvement at Beau Chene. The LED lighting system has also been correctly redirected. The light standards on the field were storm damaged several years ago. Nearly all of the costs were picked up by FEMA, school officials have said.
Honored At Halftime
Beau Chene alumnus Walter Davis was honored at halftime. Davis, an Olympic track medalist and multiple LSU track medal holder, now has the football-soccer field at the school named after him. In 2023 Davis was admitted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
