Randy L. Warren
October 24, 2013
LSU women relying on VCHS’ Plaisance in 2013-14
October 29, 2013
The Thibodaux High School football team has been an easy bunch to predict so far this season.
The Tigers have alternated wins and losses for the entire 2013 year – the team’s latest game being a 30-25 setback against East St. John.
With two weeks to go in the season, Thibodaux is now 4-4 and right on the bubble of Class 5A playoff contention in the LHSAA’s latest power rankings.
Finding consistency in the final two weeks of the season will be key for the Tigers. It won’t be easy, as Thibodaux will travel to Galliano on Thursday night for a regionally televised game against rival South Lafourche – another 4-4 team within the district.
“We’ve got to just keep getting better every week,” Tigers coach Chris Dugas said. “We’ve got to improve on the mistakes that we make. We’ve been having some good games, but we’ve been making some errors on film. We’ve got to clean up a lot of things that we see on film.”
The Tigers will enter the upcoming must-win games with a luxury no one else has – senior halfback Donta Johnson.
Thibodaux’s elite standout back has been a monster throughout the season, gashing defense with both his power running and passing.
Johnson has played quarterback at times in the Tigers’ two-quarterback system. Together with Peyton Bonvillain, the one-two punch has each made explosive plays throughout the season to earn Thibodaux’s moniker as one of the best offenses in the Tri-parish area.
Dugas said it’s a total team effort. He said Johnson looks so dynamite because of the players around him. Likewise, the supporting case is able to shine because of the attention Johnson yields.
“Donta is a great player – we’d never take anything away from him nor his accomplishments,” Dugas said. “But we have a lot of pretty dog-gone good football players. We’re blessed with a lot of players who can make plays to help us push the ball down the field and hopefully into the end zone.”
The scariest part for the Tigers’ opponents is that Johnson isn’t 100 percent healthy. The senior playmaker suffered a high ankle sprain earlier in the season – an ailment that has kept him from being 100 percent for nearly the entire year.
Dugas said Johnson aggressively rehabs the injury throughout the week so that he can steadily improve throughout the season.
“He’s not 100 percent,” Dugas said. “He’s been doing a lot of treatments on the ankle. With a high ankle sprain, sometimes that’s almost like a broken leg in terms of the recovery time. He’s not quite able to cut like he wants to, but he can still bruise you and come downhill at you. Hopefully, he’ll get a little closer each week as we move forward.”
Johnson and the Thibodaux offense generate the headlines. But Thibodaux’s defense deserves a lot of credit, as well.
Dugas said in the preseason that the Tigers’ defenders were young, but talented and would get better each week as the season progressed.
That proclamation has proven to be exactly right, as Thibodaux has controlled several opponents this season. The Tigers shut out Assumption, held H.L. Bourgeois to six points and limited Shaw and Terrebonne each to just 14 points.
It’s not a coincidence that Thibodaux won all four of those games.
“We’ve been doing a good job of bending, but not breaking,” Dugas said. “We give up yards, but when our kids need to make a play, we really tighten up and do a really good job of keeping our opponents out the end zone in key situations.”
But when it’s all said and done, the Tigers will have to find a way to win a few close games.
Thibodaux is really good at blowing people out. All four of the Tigers’ wins this season have come in games that were decided by 10 or more points.
But when the game is close in the final minutes, things aren’t the same.
In three of the Tigers’ four losses, the outcome was decided by a touchdown or fewer, including in Friday night’s game which saw Thibodaux head into the fourth quarter with the lead, but ultimately fall in a five-point defeat.
Dugas said he is well aware of the statistics and trends – now it’s just a matter of bucking them and pushing forward.
If history serves, the Tigers would win tomorrow night’s game via the rule of alternating wins and losses. The Tarpons, of course, have other plans.
“It’s just one of those abnormalities that sometimes happens,” Dugas said. “Some of those games we played well, but just ran into good football teams. We’re due. We’ve drawn the short end of the stick all season. One of these teams, we’d like to think we’d make a play to turn one of those close games in our favor.”
Thibodaux playmakers Peyton Bonvillain (left) and Donta Johnson pose with a football prior to a practice this season. The Tigers’ one-two punch at quarterback is keeping opponents on edge so far this season. Thibodaux is 4-4 on the season and likely has to win one of its final two games to reach the Class 5A State Playoffs.
