BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Sacred Heart-Ville Platte effectively neutralized the main components of an explosive Opelousas Catholic offense Friday night, in what became a pair defensive masterpieces put on display by two District 5-1A championship contenders.
The overall defensive strategy in his team’s 3-0 victory, said Sacred Heart head coach Jacob Aguillard, was to eliminate as much of the Opelousas Catholic running game as possible and take away the Vikings’ deep threat passing game.
While Aguillard had praise for his defense, Opelousas Catholic head coach Cullen Matherne also showered his defense with superlatives.
“It was a great game between two very good football teams. I thought we played excellent defense the entire game and a lot of credit has to go to them,” said Matherne.
Things however won’t get any easier for either OCS or Sacred Heart this week.
The Vikings travel to meet undefeated St. Edmund at Blue Jay Field. Sacred Heart goes to Opelousas to meet 4-0 Westminster Christian.
It remained a scoreless game until 11:42 remained in the fourth quarter when Trojans’ placekicker William Chapman kicked a 19-yard field goal.
The three points ended a third period primarily consumed by the Trojans, who took 10 plays and over four minutes to get the field goal.
Matherne said his offense had difficulty running smoothly.
“It was one of those games where you take one step forward and another two backward. If we got a big play, it seemed as though there was a penalty or something sloppy. We couldn’t put anything together,” Matherne added.
Aguillard said the Trojans concentrated on stopping OCS running back Royce Butler and at times placing double secondary coverages on the Vikings’ Roderick Tezeno and Maurice Marcel.
“We didn’t want to get beat over the top and our guys executed the game plan. I thought we played physical and we did a good job in the secondary of not getting beat deep,” Aguillard said.
Aguillard also complimented his players for overcoming a first half in which the Trojans lost two fumbles and had a pair of passes intercepted.
Sacred Heart, said Aguillard, was still able to control enough of the game clock, with a running game that produced 173 yards that featured Gavin Patin running for 115.
“We preach all the time about our players having short memories. We take the attitude of so what? What’s the next play,” Aguillard said.
Tezeno caught seven passes for 78 yards, but otherwise Matherne noted that the Trojans did a credible job defensively.
“They were able to bring pressure up the middle. Some of our throws were there, but that pressure frustrated our quarterback. I felt we were making the right calls (offensively), but we were unable to make things happen,” Metherne added.
The Vikings reached the SHHS 16-yard line on the first OCS series, but that possession ended when quarterback Kross Gillen was intercepted in the end zone.
OCS reached the Trojans’ 24-yard line on the Vikings’ first series of the second half, but a third-down penalty pushed the Vikings back.
The Vikings reached the Sacred Heart 29-yard line during the final three minutes of the game, but OCS lost a fumble following a second down completion and the Trojans were able to manage the game clock after that.
