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The Bayou District has officially been raided.
Three River Parish intruders are competing in the local Class 5A district – each with eyes on the championship.
After several years away, Hahnville, Destrehan and East St. John have rejoined our area’s league, which features local teams South Lafourche, Central Lafourche, Thibodaux, Terrebonne and H.L. Bourgeois in most varsity sports.
After one week of football district play, the foreign invaders showed that they have muscle, posting a 3-0 record against local foes – all road victories.
Destrehan trumped Terrebonne 42-17 in Houma, while Hahnville and East St. John stormed into Lafourche Parish and earned wins, beating Thibodaux and South Lafourche, respectively – both games that were decided in the final seconds of play.
That opening week has local coaches saying the same thing: Those guys are pretty good.
“That’s three good football teams,” South Lafourche coach Dennis Skains said. “But we think that we have some pretty good football teams on the bayou, too. But we’ve embraced that and our kids have embraced that they are in our district because it’s kind of one of those deals where you know going into every game that you’re going to be lining up against some really, really special players.”
“We lost two pretty good schools here with New Iberia and Westgate,” Terrebonne coach Gary Hill added this past summer when the district was finalized. “But now we added three good schools, so it’ll be just that much tougher. It puts pressure on your team to stay healthy and do all of the little things right, because you can’t beat great teams if you are beat up because we don’t have the depth they have out there.”
When talking about the District 7-5A, Destrehan is the team that will likely come up pretty early in the conversation.
The Wildcats are loaded with college-level players on both offense and defense – a roster that has many believing that they can win the state championship.
Quarterback and Utah commitment Donovan Isom and his 6-foot, 5-inch, 235-pound frame anchor Destrehan’s offense, which has scored at least 40 points in every game this season – all blowout wins.
If ever a foe is talented enough to bottle up Isom, he is surrounded with other college-level players like Tulane commitment and linebacker RaeJuan Marbley and also Denzel Arceneaux, Malcolm Darensbourg, Brandon Scott and Alfred Scott – all players receiving significant collegiate interest.
Against Terrebonne, the Wildcats pounded the previously unbeaten Tigers from the get-go, taking a 35-10 lead into halftime.
But Hahnville and East St. John also have players capable of giving opponents fits on any given Friday.
Hahnville boasts one of the stingiest defenses in Louisiana – a group that has allowed just 12 points per game this season.
The Wildcats line up Tulane commitment Daren Williams at defensive end and boast LSU commitment Xavier Lewis under center.
Lewis drove the dagger into the Tarpons’ hopes in the district opener, catching a game-winning touchdown pass with just 4 seconds to play.
“Those schools are very talented,” Central Lafourche coach Keith Menard said. “All of them are very talented. They all have guys on the edges who can give you fits. They all have key guys that you have to game plan for. But we just have to play football and play our game. We want to sustain long drives, keep the ball out of their hands and control the clock. The best defense on great players is when they are on the sidelines watching other kids play.”
“They have remarkable athletes and great team speed across the board,” Thibodaux coach Chris Dugas added. “They all are well coached and have quality programs. When you add them to the great group of quality programs already in place locally, it’s going to be a great fight to the finish.”
After an 0-3 start against the powerful trio in week one of action, local coaches said they are optimistic that the bayou schools will start to find victory as the season wears on.
Skains pointed to the fact that South Lafourche had a lead in the final seconds against the Wildcats – a back and forth game.
“We thought we were going to get that last stop and win the game,” the coach said. “It was a great, great high school football game.”
Menard said he’s already watching film on East St. John – his team’s foe on Friday night.
He said that while most will consider the Trojans an underdog, he’s not conceding victory in any area.
“They are good and we know that, but we’re absolutely going up there to win a ballgame,” Menard said. “We’re not going to just go on the field and tell the kids, ‘OK, they are a River school, they are going to beat us.’ We have good players down here, too. We absolutely are going up there to compete to the best of our ability and play our game.
“We worry about ourselves first and foremost. If we take care of ourselves and play our game, we can compete.”
River Parish schools Hahnville, Destrehan and East St. John have invaded the Bayou District – each school dead-set on winning the district championship in football. Their emergence has local programs like Terrebonne (pictured) polishing their game plans for the rest of the season. The river schools went 3-0 in their first weekend of district play. Destrehan trumped Terrebonne, while Hahnville beat Thibodaux and East St. John outlasted South Lafourche.
